New look?

So, as my request was authorized by The Big Ticket, I updated the blog template just a bit (it's what I do, you see...) and I was wondering if anyone cared if we changed the look of things over here? So - I found a neat-o poll feature and I decided to try it out! So, like - vote!

Quirky MLB Projections

Chase Utley is on pace to hit 60 home runs, the most ever by a second baseman. (10 HR/27 G)

Albert Pujols is on pace to walk 167 times, the 5th highest single-season total. (29 BB/28 G)

Both Ryan Howard and Mark Reynolds are on pace to strike out 228 times, which would break the 199 K record Howard set last year. (38K/27 G)

Roy Halladay is on pace to throw 21 complete games. (4CG/6 starts)

Roy Halladay is on pace to throw 16 complete game losses. (3CG losses/6 starts)

Ken Griffey Jr. is on pace to hit 23 home runs, giving him 616 career home runs and passing Sammy Sosa (609HR) to move into 5th place all-time. (4HR/27 G)

A.J. Pierzynski is on pace to get hit by 6 pitches this season, which most would agree is not nearly enough. (1HBP/ 25 G)

Miguel Tejada is on pace to age three years, from 31 to 34, a new single-season record.

Barry Bonds is on pace to go 162 games without being missed by anyone.

Jim Thome is on pace to strike out 181 times, giving him 2238K's for his career, safely keeping him behind Sammy Sosa's 2306K's for 2nd all-time, and thus continuing my ability to poke fun at that stat. However, that's not nearly as enjoyable as this:

Sorry, Croat, I couldn't resist.

Sports in the Onion: 3/13/08

Mark Prior Just Needs To Stop By Hospital For A Sec To Get Some T.J. Surgery

PEORIA, AZ—Padres pitcher Mark Prior informed teammates Monday that he just has to pop in to the hospital for "one quick sec" to have Tommy John connective tissue reconstruction surgery performed on his right arm. "Hey guys, can you pull over for a minute? My U.C. lig is just killing me and I gotta get a little T.J. before the game," Prior reportedly told fellow pitchers Jake Peavy and Chris Young after tearing his ulnar collateral ligament while the trio was driving to the ballpark. "Just a quick Teej—pop out the lig, pop in a tendon, no biggie. I'd do it myself, but I just had some ro-co [rotator-cuff surgery] last night and I can't move my arm. You can leave the car running, I'll be back in a minute tops." Prior will not be able to throw a baseball for 16 to 18 months.

MLB Predictions '08

*Although we are 20+ games into the season, I figured I'd go ahead and post my major league picks. I had already done this before the season started and won't change anything to be fair.

AL East
1) Yankees
2) Red Sox
3) Blue Jays
4) Rays
5) Orioles

AL Central
1) Indians
2) Tigers - Wild Card
3) White Sox
4) Royals
5) Twins

AL West
1) Athletics
2) Angels
3) Mariners
4) Rangers

NL East
1) Phillies
2) Mets - Wild Card
3) Braves
4) Nationals
5) Marlins

NL Central
1) Cubs
2) Brewers
3) Cardinals
4) Astros
5) Reds
6) Pirates

NL West
1) Diamondbacks
2) Dodgers
3) Rockies
4) Padres
5) Giants

AL MVP: Miguel Cabrera, Tigers
AL Cy Young: Justin Verlander, Tigers
AL MOY: Joe Girardi, Yankees
NL MVP: Derrek Lee, Cubs
NL Cy Young: Danny Haren, Diamondbacks
NL MOY: Charlie Manuel, Phllies

World Series: Phillies 4, Indians 2

NBA Season Over, But Not MVP Decision

I love when numbers back up claims! Well I'm going to lead away from baseball for the moment, as all I can say about the baseball posts thus far is that jealousy is a powerful emotion. Although the Cubs may lose year after year, they have proven to have the most loyal fans and arguably the largest fan base in the country. That might be why more coverage goes towards the Cubs. Enough said.

Well the NBA regular season ends tonight and as expected, the West rankings are still not set. It has been a good year for the NBA, excluding the unbelievable disappointing season for the Bulls. The most prestigious award in the NBA, aside from winning the championship, is the MVP, and there has been a good group of contenders this year. Below are some of the most important statistics for the 4 contenders (NBA ranks are in parentheses). All this data is correct as of April 15th.


Kobe has really had a great year and has had convincing statistics to back it up. He has never won the MVP before, but this might be his best chance thus far. His scoring ability is not in question and he has shown pretty good defense (steals), but when you look at the guy who handles the ball almost every single possession, his assist and turnover numbers do not look good.

Kevin Garnett is a workhorse and is one of the most underrated players in the game. Unfortunately, going to a team with so much talent (Paul Pierce and Ray Allen, among others) has reduced his scoring. Although he has a great field goal percentage, the only statistical category he leads for the Celtics is rebounds, which was expected. Bottom line, he is still as talented as ever, but is masked by too much talent around him. He probably doesn’t mind since he has a legitimate shot at the championship for the first time.

LeBron James is extremely fun to watch and shows how good he is night in and night out. This is shown by being the overall scoring leader. For being very similar to Kobe in his early career, LeBron has shown that he can pass the ball (assists) and play defense (steals) better than Kobe could at that age. He has also almost single handedly turned around the Cavs with much less help than Kobe got this year.

Chris Paul is amazing, and that’s an understatement. He is arguably the best point guard in the league by leading the NBA in both assists and steals. As a true point guard should, he thinks pass first, shoot second, and that shows with his high assists and moderate scoring (21.1 ppg is not anything to laugh at though!).

One other statistic I forgot to include was the number of double-doubles.
Chris Paul – 54 (2)
LeBron James – 31 (19)
Kevin Garnett – 29 (21)
Kobe Bryant – 20 (38)

My Vote:
1) Chris Paul
2) LeBron James
3) Kobe Bryant
4) Kevin Garnett

In summary, Chris Paul should be the unanimous decision for MVP. Not only does he lead the NBA in assists and steals, he has fewer turnovers than both Kobe and LeBron. He also has more double-doubles and a better free throw percentage than the other three contenders. He has also helped to bring a worthless 2006-07 New Orleans team to 2 wins away from a #1 seed in the West this year. LeBron finishes 2nd in my book because he is a better scorer, better rebounded, better passer, and better shooter than Kobe. As aforementioned, Kobe has had a great year and very similar statistics to the other 3 contenders, but Kobe has not had the team challenges that Paul and James have had. If Kobe gets the MVP, he should have to split it with Pau Gasol. Kobe has had too much talent around him to make him the most valuable player in the NBA. This is the same situation for Garnett, not to mention his stats being overshadowed by his own team and by the other 3 contenders. Unfortunately, since the Lakers won the West, Kobe will probably get it. Bottom line: Chris Paul is the most deserving and outstanding player in the NBA, regardless of how his team does and the talent (or lack there of) that he has around him.

Re: Chicago Bias

"Paltry division?" Paltry division? You'll have to repeat that in my good ear. Although I agree that the north-siders have been given more credit than their fellow south-siders for an equally-good win streak, comparing the Cubs' foes to that of the Sox proves to be not that dissimilar. (I won't even mention the lack of coverage of a team that also won five in a row, currently sits atop the majors with the best record, and won the World Series a mere one year ago.) Frankly, I'm really not sold on the Tigers. After all, every one knows how important preseason predictions are, right? The Bulls were predicted across the board to win the East. Tiger was predicted to run away with the Masters. Hell, I remember a 2005 preseason 8th-ranked Hawkeye team that lost a game 23-3 to an "inferior" team two hours west on I-80.

Now, I'm a numbers-kind-of-guy and baseball is a numbers-kind-of-game. I did a little research to Mr. Ruettiger's divisional claim -- as of the day he posted, to be fair -- and the results were surprising.

As you can see, the NL Central actually came out to be the most winningest division while the AL Central sat second to last. As of today, the date of this post, nothing has changed.

However, since we are talking about strength of division, one can not include inter-divisional games. It's the classic intangible argument: the Tigers lose to the White Sox because the Sox are a good team, but you can discard the Tigers poor record because they're losses are a result of playing in a tough division. And vice versa: the Astros lose to the Cubs because the Astros are a bad team, thus making the Cubs look better by playing in a poor division. In divisional play, the overall division record always comes out to .500 -- one team must win and one team must lose -- and how that is interpreted is a matter of perspective. Logically, the only way to quantifiably compare one division to another is based on non-divisional play. The results are as follows:

Shocked? I'm not. The AL Central is dead last in non-divisional play to date with the NL Central leading the pack. Now I'm not saying this trend will continue all season because it's early. Very early. But I will say that right now, at this moment, I would take the Cardinals, Brewers, and Cubs over the top three clubs in any other division. The past three years I would have agreed that the AL Central was top-to-bottom the strongest division in baseball (yes, even with the Royals) but times have changed. Oh, and Sox fans, you'd better get used to all the attention the Cubs will get this season as long as the calender reads "2008."

I'll revisit this analysis quarterly throughout the season, but until then, in the words of Bryan Swinbank, "NL Central Rulez!!!"

Disclaimer: This was in no way meant to encourage the ceasing nor desisting of Cub-bashing.

Awesome - Sox Try to Curse Yankees

Fantastic - the construction crew for the new Yankees stadium spent five hours jackhammering through concrete until they found this - a Red Sox David Ortiz jersey buried in the concrete foundation.

Apparently a Sox-friendly construction worker left it there as a curse for the new stadium - but as all good pranks usually go he had to go and blab about it to everyone. Why couldn't he have waited to talk for even a year?

Chicago Bias

I see the Cubs win again today.  Congrats North-siders.  But my question is this - why should I care?  I understand I probably shouldn't be writing about inequity of coverage between the Cubs and White Sox.  But it is worth mentioning.  Plus if the Sox get really good, you can say you heard it here first.  (No laughing you Croat)  So the Cubs have won 5 in a row.  

Great!  The White Sox just won 5 in a row.  The difference, the Cubs played the Pirates and the Astros.  Both teams were projected in the lower half of an already paltry division.

The White Sox beat the Tigers, in fact they took it to the Tigers.  And the Twins.  Yes that would be the same Tigers that some predicted will score 1000 runs this year with the new murder's row line up.  Instead we hear how great the Cubs are playing and how bad the Tigers are playing.  What does it take to get a little love on the South Side.  Its only been 2 years since we won a World Series.  Its been at least that for the Cubs, right?  But all this will be for naught.  I realize people just love the Cubs, and come September when the games really matter, we'll see what happens.

Whiney Rapist

Over the course of this NBA season, no one has complained and whined more than Kobe Bryant. Currently, Kobe sits at 15 technical fouls on the season, one away from an automatic one-game suspension. He is leading the NBA, beating the annual leader, Rasheed Wallace. I understand basketball is a competitive sport and emotions can occasionally take over, but Kobe, along with the whole Lakers team, have been complaining an extraordinary amount. You can't leave out Phil Jackson, who has also received technical fouls over the season. During a recent game, Kobe received a technical for complaining about a foul when they were beating the lowly Sonics by over 30. Although I despise Kobe, many people look up to him and use him as a role model. Complaining because you don't get your way is not a good thing to teach to people, but Kobe has too big of an ego to realize this. He relies too much on receiving every single call because he's a superstar. But the problems with refereeing in the NBA is a whole other can of worms.

Cubbies Team to Beat!

100 years is a long time.
This is not the first, and definitely not the last time the baseball world will hear about the Cubs infertility, the greatest in sports history. I think of myself as a pretty realistic Cubs fan (I will mention Cale's post later), so I am confidently, and without cliche, saying that this is the Cubs' year. For the first time as a Cubs fan, I was satisfied with the offseason activity, even more so than getting Soriano the year before. This year, Jim Hendry tried to improve our power and run support with Fukudome, but also tried to improve our pitching for the first time in a while by getting Lieber and keeping the previous year's pitchers. I am happy to say that Mark Prior has finally been traded, but Kerry Wood is still pitching as a closer (he gave up 3 runs in the opener!) Pinella has many options for the lineup, rotation, and bullpen this year, probably the first time the Cubs had this many options since 2003. The pieces are all in place for a World Series run, especially with the Central being relatively down this season (90 games should easily win this division). So as I have before, I will raise my expectations and spend countless hours of watching and waiting in hopes that the Cubs can finally give back to the city of Chicago (the White Sox win doesn't count because, come on, it's the White Sox).

As for Cale's post. Alou has admitted this before and it was a long time ago, but I admit, too many Cubs fans look past Gonzalez's unbelievable error to blame a fan. I guess being illogical and unreasonable comes with being broken-hearted during the Cubs best chance for a World Series berth in over 50 years! I, on the other hand, will be realistic and look to the future...

Davidson Disappoints

Alliteration  aside, what was the Davidson coaching staff thinking in their failed attempt to take out Kansas?

Clearly Stephan Curry has the ability to win that game.  And could have.  But you've got a kid (Bryant Barr) who also was shooting lights out at the end of the game.  You know KU is locking up against Curry, why they didn't make a play to Barr is beyond me.  

I know I should support the Big XII and I normally do, but I just wanted to see this Davidson team move on.  One, because it can't hurt my joke of a bracket.  And two, it is fun.  Davidson did all the right things to win that game.  They played tough against a bigger and by all measures, a better team.  But the end of the game was baffling.  

Also - stay tuned this weekend for MLB predictions 

The Truth

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3324343

It appears Moises Alou finally took a step back from the situation back in 2003 to truly understand the reality of what happened.  Steve Bartmen clearly did what any true baseball fan would have done in that situation.  He tried to catch a ball that Mr. Alou wouldn't catch.  I'm sorry Cubs fan (I'm not but for the sake of civility) but thats the true.  Now Alou admits it.  The Cubs just were not the better team.  And it showed later as Alex Gonzales botched a sure double play.  

Nobody blames him, but truly he cost the Cubs the game.  Why can't a logical and reasonable fan see that? 

I think I just summed up Cubs fans pretty nicely right there.