Sports, Dogs and Everything Else

Don't call it a comeback

2011-12-15T19:10:00.000-05:00

By Jeff

OK, I have been neglecting this blog for about a month now. I have been running around wedding planning, house hunting and working. There is no excuse for leaving the blog unmanned, as this truly is something I love.

The one positive about not really having a post for a month is that there is are a ton of things on my mind. I don't even know where to start!

A lot of people don't like Ben Roethlisberger. I think it might have to do with that whole he might have raped a woman in a bathroom. It might also have to do with the stories that he is a bit of a jerk off the field. But you can't deny that he is the toughest quarterback in the league. Most people can't even bear weight on a grade 2 ankle sprain. He went out and played two quarters and led his team to a needed win.
Antonio Brown is having an incredible season. Did anyone else see him having 55 receptions and 925 yards at this point in the season? And it's not just the total stats, it's how he seems to make clutch catches when the Steelers need one.
Has anyone seen Emmanuel Sanders lately?
Sidney Crosby's return was incredible. I didn't even see the game live, but it boosted my morale. On the flip side, the fact he is out again with concussion-like symptoms has crushed my soul a little bit.
Evgeni Malkin is looking like the Malkin of old. He is taking over games and showing the drive that seemed to be missing for about two seasons.
Why won't blogger let me put an extra return between bullets!? Now I'm stuck putting bullets inbetween other bullets. It's annoying!
Pascal Dupuis is THE MAN. The amazing thing is he is on pace for a career year despite playing the majority of the season without Sydney Crosby.
The Pirates are making huge moves. OK, they are making moves. Not sure if they are good or not. I love that they picked up Erik Bedard. If the team gets 150 innings from the injury prone pitcher they will be getting a bargain. As for Clint Barmes, Rod Barajas and Nate McLouth, meh. None of these guys are going to do much for this team. They are hardly upgrades to the people they are replacing.
Albert Pujols is a freak. A 10-year deal worth more than $250 for a guy older than 30 is a bit of a stretch. Of course, he could transition to DH in a few years and save his body a little bit.
So some Eagles fans think the team is going to make the playoffs this year. That or they call into radio stations every day screaming for Andy Reid's head. As an outsider, I don't think Reid should be fired. The team has a ton of talent and can gel over the offseason. If the Steelers bailed on Bill Cowher after a few rough years, they might still be looking for that one for the thumb.
Glee sucks.
Blog contributor Greg and I have been sending e-mails back an forth for the past month regarding Penn State, Jerry Sandusky and Joe Paterno. He makes a strong point that JoePa may have been prematurely fired. If you read the grand jury report, then you'd think Paterno didn't do enough. And that was my thinking after reading it. But now we have man close to Mike McQuery saying that McQuery told the man that he never saw Jerry Sandusky raping a child. Rather, McQuery said he just heard noises in the showers and saw a boy's head peak around the corner and later saw Sandusky leaving the shower. This is a complete contradiction to what McQuery told the grand jury. So maybe Paterno wasn't told about the alleged rape that night in 2002. However, why didn't this new source come out weeks ago to note McQuery's inconsistencies. And the fact that Sandusky was told not to bring children on campus tells you that administrators were at least suspicious he was up to terrible acts. I still think Paterno and others should have been asking why the hell Sandusky was still allowed around campus up until his arrest. Maybe Paterno did ask, but I think he would have said something to the media about it if he had. I'm just saying a man does not say "I should have done more" if he really thinks he went to the proper lengths to resolve the situation. Others may say Paterno's statement "could mean anything", but I think that is more avoiding the situation.
Anyone see the leaked trailer for "The Dark Knight Rises"? They better get Thomas Hardy in the editing room and redo the audio. You can't friggin understand a word Bane says.
Saw "The Muppets" last month. It was awesome.
Does anyone care that the NBA is back?
I also don't care about the NCAA football National Championship game. I saw this game already.
Remember last year when we had a guy doing college football posts every week? He said he'd do that again this year. You remember that, Mike!? Not like I can talk much. This is only the second post this month.

Jimmy Eat World - Futures

Week 13 Picks

2011-12-04T11:01:00.004-05:00

You know what sucks about this time of year. Your football team sucks, but doesn't suck enough to get the number 1 draft pick. Thus, you are left in this quagmire towards the end of the season were you sort of root against your own team so that you get a higher draft pick. That is until the 4th quarter when your awful/sometimes good team makes a comeback and you throw the future out the window for a win right now. In the end, if your team doesn't win the superbowl, you should want the highest draft pick possible, there is no sense in rooting for a 3-10 team to get to 6-10. It's silly. So if you aren't a Green Bay Packers fan, you should probably just go ahead and root for you team to lose out. Let's get to the picks.

BUFFALO -1 vs Tennessee

This team is a wounded animal! They are playing at home in December and I can assume this means snow. Matt Hasselbeck can't wear enough headgear to keep his bald spot warm. Ryan Fitzpatrick has a big day handing off to....uhhh....Brad Smith? Yikes.

Chiefs +7 vs CHICAGO

Both of these teams are just awful on offense right now. Caleb Hanie I suppose manages this game well enough to win, but I foresee a score of something like 12-10. So many field goals!

Oakland +3.5 vs MIAMI

I'm a Dolphins fan and I know how this team operates. They only win when you have lost all hope that can function as an NFL team. Their run D is great, so expect nothing from Michael Bush. But expect Carson Palmer to have a field day as he throws to his 6th string WR.

PITTSBURGH -6.5 vs Cincy

I don't even know anymore. This Steelers team could barely beat Tyler Palko but somehow I think they will come out and crush Cincy. I think they need this win to ensure this division race doesn't become muddled.

CLEVELAND +7 vs Baltimore

See above. Baltimore wins this but the score won't be Ravens 300 - Cleveland 0 like it should be. Although Cleveland does have this great new WR named Greg Little. He gets a ton of targets a game and only catches half of them. He's a star!!!! (Sorry, I just had a convulsion where I had to do some Fantasy Football taunting.)

Jets -3 vs WASHINGTON

One team is good, one team is awful? Not sure what else to say here. Rex Grossman won't finish this game.

HOUSTON + 1.5 vs Atlanta

If I were in Las Vegas I would totally bet this game - and probably bet the money line for Houston. I realize they are starting a rookie who has 12 National Football League pass attempts, but let's be real they are a team built on running and defense. Atlanta is awful against the run and Matty Ice on the road doesn't inspire confidence.

Carolina PK vs TAMPA

Cam Newton most likely throws for 300 yards and runs for 50 more against a really beat up Tampa D-line. This is one of those division games where it just doesn't seem to matter, the worse team could win out.

Denver -1.5 vs MINNESOTA

This Denver team sure has a lot of heart. I think they have all rallied around Willis McGahee and rookie Von Miller. I like them to lead their way to the light...uhhh, lead their way to victory.

St. Louis +14 vs SAN FRANCISCO

There is no way an offense lead by Alex Smith beats a team by 14 points right. Did you see him on Thanksgiving? Yikes.

Dallas -4.5 vs ARIZONA

Dallas is on a role now, they have the division basically wrapped up and I dont think they start playing poorly until the playoffs. Anyone know why Tony Romo still holds kicks 5 years later? He's a starting NFL QB, no one else on the Cowboys can be the holder?

Green Bay -6.5 vs NEW YORK GIANTS

I actually waffled on this game. Doesn't this seem like the week where everyone hates on the Giants and claims they have given up and then the Giants come out of nowhere and rip off 4 in a row? Unfortunately I can't see that happening against Aaron Rodgers.

NEW ENGLAND -20.5 vs Colts

I can't believe I'm taking a team giving 21 points essentially, but knowing how much of a jerk Bill Belichick is, I can see him running up this score. Didn't the Colts lose 63-7 versus the Saints on Sunday Night Football earlier this year?

JACKSONVILLE +3 vs San Diego

I have no faith in this San Diego team and Jacksonville maybe plays their hearts out now that they lost Jack Del Rio.

Week 12 picks

2011-11-27T12:02:00.000-05:00

By Jeff

All hail Tim Tebow. Who needs to complete more than 50 percent of their passes to win in this league? Well, every one but Tebow.

What the hell is going on in the NFL the past four weeks? Why is Tebow succeeding? He takes what seems like eternity to wind up and deliver a ball. Even Byron Leftwich thinks he takes too much time winding up.

I would be a lot closer to .500 if this Tebow thing wasn't happening. That's like three picks I thought were locks only to be smited by Tebow.

Whatever. The miss of last week was taking Buffalo (+2.5) against Miami. And now Fred Jackson is done for the season. It's safe to say the Buffalo Bills 180 has become a 360, as they are back to sucking big time.

I went 6-7-1 last week and am 65-70-7 for the season. But there is still hope. I am off to a 3-0 this week. Wooooo!

Arizona (+2.5) over ST. LOUIS - NFC West games are so friggin boring.

NEW YORK JETS (-9.5) over Buffalo - See above.

CINCINNATI (-7) over Cleveland - Andy Dalton has to be so excited not to be facing the Pittsburgh Steelers or Baltimore Ravens this week. Having A.J. Green back helps too.

Houston (-6) over JACKSONVILLE - Let the Matt Leinart Era begin anew!

Carolina (-3.5) over INDIANAPOLIS - I'm not sure any player on the Colts cares anymore and are just going through the motions for the rest of the season. Has anyone seen Reggie Wayne, Dallas Clark, Austin Collie or Pierre Garcon recently? Their families are worried.

Tampa Bay (+3.5) over TENNESSEE - Only because one of my fantasy teams is on the decline and I need Josh Freeman to be the man he was last season if I want to defend my title.

ATLANTA (-9.5) over Minnesota - Vikings quarterback Christian Ponder has been playing OK, but he hasn't had to play a game without the safety net that is Adrian Peterson before. He is in for a long day. Clearly I don't have much faith in Toby Gerhart.

OAKLAND (-3) over Chicago - Unless the Raiders decide to punt to Devin Hester in the middle of the field every time.

SEATTE (-3) over Washington - Marshawn Lynch might be one of the ugliest men alive, but you have to respect how hard he has been running this season for a very bad team. He could have easily packed it in and tried to save his body a little bit, but he keeps breaking tackles and playing tough.

New England (-3) over PHILADELPHIA - Maybe the two most annoying fan bases in the league. There are no winners here. Only losers, as one of these fan bases will be happy and we'll have to hear endless excuses from the loser's fan base.

SAN DIEGO (-5.5) over Denver - Clearly I'm going to hell for picking against the chosen one.

Pittsburgh (-10.5) over KANSAS CITY - You only need to know two words in regards to this game; Tyler Palko.

NEW ORLEANS (-7.5) over New York Giants - This is just a guess as I have no idea what Giants team will show up. Ever.

Starship - We Built This City (Worst song in the history of music?)

Thanksgiving picks

2011-11-24T13:36:00.000-05:00

By Jeff

Sorry I am a little late. Had a really fun drive last night (sigh).

Green Bay (-4.5) over DETROIT

Miami (+7) over DALLAS

BALTIMORE (-3.5) over San Francisco

Fantasy Addiction

2011-11-21T16:03:00.001-05:00

I have a severe addiction. I get angry for no tangible reason, I have mood swings that rival any princess from My Super Sweet Sixteen and just recently, I have started staying up at night thinking about my addiction. I am addicted to fantasy football. I have a problem.

I have been playing fantasy football for over 15 years - my first team consisted entirely of Miami Dolphins, I was a homer, but the game was simple and I could just root for my favorite team and my fantasy team in one easy stroke. Fast forward to yesterday, where I sat down at a bar with my friends to watch the Dolphins vs Bills game. My friend, a rabid Bills fan, remembered that I had Fred Jackson, the Bills starting running back on my fantasy team, and I noted that I would be okay with him scoring against my own Miami Dolphins. I have now accepted that part of my universe revolves around a fictional team (The White Devil, named after what NFL players think of the commissioner, Roger Goodell) and that I can root against my lifelong favorite team as long as overpaid members of my fictional team inflict the damage.
I am not entirely addicted to fantasy, although perhaps this is a sentiment that would set me back in my 12 step process. I am (only) in two leagues, which compared to some friends is downright frugal. I only bet $50 combined between the two leagues, and in one league I already made my money back this year. So theoretically, I will only lose $20 this year - or in Sweet Sixteen terms, the price per minute of renting an elephant. Financially and league commitment wise I probably only invest an hour or so a week, not including Sundays.
Which brings us back to yesterday. Yesterday, my girlfriend and I met up with another couple (the bills fan and his girlfriend) and later on two more of my friends came. There were six of us and 3 of us played fantasy football, although not in the same league. This way, there was some understanding of the irrational lapses when one player drops a ball or doesn’t even get to touch the ball. We arrived 30 minutes before kick off of the early games and left as the whistle blew on the late games. Total hours spent at the bar: 6:30. My girlfriend, a pretty big football fan, was beyond bored by the 2nd quarter of the afternoon games, the other couple left halfway through the first game, and thus there were only 3 of us remotely interested in the TVs. This is my Sunday, every Sunday.
The lethargic feeling that comes from sitting stagnant all day, refreshing your phone every minute and forcing your eyes from one TV to the next, is overwhelming. After a day at the bar, I fight the urge not to binge eat myself to death. Somehow binge eating seems to make up for the fact that I did nothing all day long, like eating that extra slice of pizza will trick my brain into saying, “Hey, at least you ate 6 slices of pizza today.” On a day like yesterday, it wasn’t my own self hatred to draw attention to my addiction. It was the looks on my friends faces.
Example 1: The Bills fan was repeatedly surprised about how much I knew about the Bills roster. I noted that I only spend about an hour per week on Fantasy Football, but that does not include the weekly routine of reading MMQB, TMQ, Grantland and every single Miami Dolphins article I can get my hands on. If you count those and the amount of hours that my TV is stuck on ESPN, perhaps the hours per week multiplies to 10. My friend was nearly incredulous that I would know that his team’s back up center got injured last week, and that’s why the Bills mishandled several snaps. This was an early indicator yesterday.
Example 2: As I was watching the Chargers/Bears game I had 3 players involved in the game - Bears’ Matt Forte and Jay Cutler and Chargers’ WR Vincent Brown. My friends were all cheering for the Bears with no higher purpose, they just LIKED the Bears. Meanwhile, I was rooting for Jay Cutler and Matt Forte to score. On an early touchdown opportunity Matt Forte, arguably a top 5 running back in the league, was nowhere to be found on 5 straight plays. Here lies the problem - not only did I rage when his backup got the TD after fumbling on the previous play, I had to explain to my friends why I was so upset. (My given reason was that I had both the Bears’ running and passing options for an offensive TD - I was almost guaranteed to get points somehow). The fact that I even had to explain this to compensate for my actions shows that maybe I’m too wrapped up in football. As the game progressed it only got worse, I yelled at the TV when the Chargers’ QB didn’t even bother to look at my open receiver, I got down and prayed for the first time since high school that Matt Forte would score (he didn’t) and it was then that I saw the looks of horror in my friend’s face. He looked at me as if I had lost my mind, my response was to tell him he didn’t understand because he doesn’t play.
Example 3: The culmination of this weekend and my awakening was my actual fantasy matchup. It’s one thing to get mad at players and condescend the TV as if it were a human, as if your words could change anything, but to get mad at a fictional game, that’s legitimately insane. In my main league, I had reeled off 7 wins to start the season, my team looked great. I proceeded to lose the next 3 games - including one week by one point. This might have been slowly building. So as I look to stop my losing streak and clinch a playoff spot, I play a team that scored a measly 58 points the week before (if I had played him last week, I would’ve won). I will not win this week. The team that could only muster 58 last week will double that this week. To make matters worse the team that I lost to last week, only managed 59 points this week (I would’ve have beaten him this week). This is part of the game of fantasy football, you get different matchups and sometimes you get lucky and sometimes you don’t. My immediate reaction to this unfairness was to spend an inordinate amount of time going over the leagues records this year to see who would beat who each week. In fact, writing this entire paragraph, trying to justify my fantasy record is crazy. If you lose in fantasy, move on. Now, I have lost my mind.
After watching ¼ of the night game last night, I realized I needed to stop checking scores and thinking of scenarios that I needed to happen to make a win possible. We turned off the game and watched Elf. I checked the scores after Elf and realized I would not be winning thanks to an amazing game from a 3rd string WR for the opposing team (sense the hatred here?). This drove me crazy, I couldn’t fall asleep for hours and when I woke up I realized that this was way too much effort over an intangible fantasy game. Fantasy Football is a celebration of two great things - men beating each other savagely and men getting together to celebrate men beating each other savagely. Yesterday, I enjoyed neither. I painstakingly sat through 6 hours of games, only to leave disappointed (even though my Miami Dolphins won for the third week in a row) and then complained externally(and perhaps more so, internally) about how those games would reflect on my fantasy team. When the joy in those two things are gone, it’s time to move on. Perhaps now, I can finally save up my money and time for the more important things in life, like renting an elephant.

Dear NHL...

2011-11-20T19:30:00.001-05:00

You're on notice.

http://post-gazette.com/pg/11324/1191398-61.stm

Go Pens.

Week 11 picks

2011-11-20T10:56:00.000-05:00

By Jeff

Another lightning round. Weekend has been full of house hunting. Let me take a few moments to tell you how much realtors suck.

In the past 3 weeks I have looked at 15 houses. Of these 15, I was very excited about three of them and was ready to place offers. When I went to make an offer, I was told that the homes were already under contract, meaning they should not have been active more me to see. Not only was it a waste of time, but it has been soul crushing. Thinking you might have a home only to be bitch-slapped.

I'm done bitching. Well, in regards to houses.

Last week was ugly. I was too late with the Thursday night game, but I went 6-9. I'm 59-63-6 for the season and this week is looking bad as well.

ATLANTA (-6.5) over Tennessee
Buffalo (+2.5) over MIAMI
Cincinnatii (+7) over BALTIMORE
CLEVELAND (-1.5) over Jacksonville
Oakland (+1) over MINNESOTA
DETROIT (-7) over Carolin
GREEN BAY (-13.5) over Tampa Bay
Dallas (-7) over WASHINGTON
SAN FRANCISCO (-10) over Arizona
ST. LOUIS (-3) over Arizona
CHICAGO (-4.5) over San Diego
NEW YORK GIANTS (-6) over Philadelphia
NEW ENGLAND (-15) over Kansas City

Bob Seeger - Against the Wind

Save "Community"!

2011-11-18T17:59:00.000-05:00

By Jeff

When you work in a division of Comcast, you pay a lot of attention to ratings of television shows. The past three months I have been following my favorite show, "Community", which is on Thursday at 8 p.m. on NBC. Well, my favorite show is in danger, as it has been since it first aired two years ago.

Granted, the ratings I have been looking at are only in the Philadelphia area, but that is a very big area and the numbers are not pretty. "Community" hovers in the 1.5-1.9 zone. That's not good. In comparison, ABC's "Modern Family" pulls in 9.0-12.0. "Modern Family" is a great show and deserves it's ratings, but then there are terrible shows like ABC's "Revenge". This piece of crap has terrible acting and the storyline is incredibly boring. Yet "Revenge" pulls off ratings in the 4's. What?

"Community" is the smartest comedy on television. The writing and acting is great and almost every episode is a bold move. What I mean by this is they are not common and proven plots. They are mostly original ideas that we haven't seen on television before. When they are not unique, it's because the show copies a previous episode that was very successful and popular.

That has been the only fault with "Community" so far. They had one of the greatest television episodes I've ever seen in Season 1's "Modern Warfare". It was phenomenal. But then they made a two-part episode in Season 2 that was a sequel. It was OK, but it wasn't what the first one was.

They did a similar thing with this past week's episode, as it was a rehash of another one they did in Season 2 (They're on Season 3).

Even with these hiccups, the show is levels above almost everything else on TV, yet it's probably going to be canceled. That is why I am asking you to write to NBC and tell them not to do it. Or at least watch the damn show. You won't regret it.

Queen - Save Me

MLB making smart moves

2011-11-18T17:48:00.000-05:00

By Jeff

I'd like to dedicate this space to Major League Baseball for slowly making their way into the 21st century. I'm proud of them.

The cause of this praise is that it was reported yesterday that MLB will work to expand the playoffs one additional wild card team per league, as well as moving the Houston Astros over to the AL and finally have six divisions of five teams. Not like it mattered for the Pittsburgh Pirates, but it never seemed fair that the NL Central had six team, while the AL West had four.

What's even more exciting about this move is that interleague play will become a weekly thing. This is the way it should be. Every other sport has teams from the other conference or league play a few times throughout the year, it's about time baseball made the switch.

Baseball enthusiasts (I'm looking at you, Greg) will probably not like this. Granted, they don't like any changes in baseball.

OK, I'm picking on Greg too much. I'm sure, or at least I hope, there are some changes he would or has supported.

Now if you're a Pirates fan, you get to see the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees more often. If you're just a baseball fan, you get to see more teams and great players in person. You're no longer limited to seeing them once every few years.

Now the big question is whether or not the DH will stay or go with this change. No stories have come out saying one way or another, so one would have to assume the DH will stay as long as an AL team is home.

Baby steps.

David Bowie - Changes

Jets over Broncos

2011-11-17T19:55:00.000-05:00

By Jeff

I'm a doubter of Tim Tebow facing a touch defense, even if that defense just got lit up Sunday and has little time to prepare for the unique offense that the Denver Broncos run.

On the flip side, The New York Jets are not the team they were supposed to be. Their defense doesn't get much pressure on the quarterback and Mark Sanchez has regressed. So this could be a tough game for the Jets.

As much as I think Sanchez is close to watching his team move in another direction at quarterback, at least if they have the guts to swallow their pride and admit they made a mistake in trading up in the draft to get him, he is better than Tebow. The Jets defense might not pressure the QB, but they are fast and won't let Tebow run wild. And we all know he won't light it up through the air.

New York Jets (-6) over DENVER

Week 10 picks

2011-11-13T09:08:00.000-05:00

By Jeff

Having a winning record was fun while it lasted, but all good things must come to an end. Last week was brutal and I clearly didn't see a lot of the results coming.

First, if you told me Joe Flacco would lead a 92-yard touchdown drive in the final two minutes t beat the Pittsburgh Steelers at any pointin his career, I would have laughed at you and told you his uni-brow does not allow for such sustained drives after gathering so much moisture for 58 minutes. It just weighs him down. Buthe did it and I was angry for the next three days.

Second, I thought the Kansas City Chiefs were over their early season suckiness. Then they go and put up a whole three points against the previously winless Miami Dolphins.

Third, Tim Tebow actually did carry his team to a win using the an option offense in the NFL. I think it will be like the Wildcat and be successful for about one game before he gets killed. Ask Ronnie Brown how his career path has gone since teams adjusted to his trick-play offense.

I would say all of these games, along with Buffalo's offense being manhandled, count as my misses of the week. I went 6-8 and am now 53-54-6 on the year. Week 10 is below with the home teams in caps. I forgot to post the Chargers-Raiders pick. My bad.

Pittsburgh (-4) over CINCINNATI - Yes, the Bengals are currently sitting atop the AFC with a 6-2 record. This is despite starting rookies at quarterback and receiver. And those rookies have played very well in the first eight games of the season. But here's the catch. They have only played two teams with winning records, and of those teams, only the San Francisco 49ers have a really stout defense like the Steelers. Ginger Dalton is going to have a tough day.

Denver (+3) over KANSAS CITY - I don't know which Kansas City team is going to show up.

INDIANAPLOIS (+3) over Jacksonville - For the first time this season, the Colts might have the edge at quarterback.

Buffalo (+5.5) over DALLAS - The New York Jets confused Ryan Fitzpatrick last week. They also have really good corners that makes confusing opponents' offenses a lot easier. Dallas doesn't have that luxury. They just have one of the most overrated defensive coordinators in football.

TAMPA BAY (+3.5) over Houston - Not sure why I keep picking Houston not to cover and the Bucs to cover. You'd think I'd learn. But then you'd look at my season record and realize it all makes sense.

Tennessee (+3.5) over CAROLINA - Hmmm. I'm picking a lot of dogs. This could get ugly.

Washington (+4) over MIAMI - You can't go from winless to four point favorites in one week. You just can't!

New Orleans (PK) over ATLANTA - When did Roddy White go to suck?

Detroit (+2.5) over CHICAGO - The Lions have the defensive front to make Jay Cutler's life miserable.

CLEVELAND (-2.5) over St. Louis - Madden Curse lives on. Peyton Hillis is not only having a terrible season, but he's turned into a bitch. For a man that is seen as a punishing runner who hits defensive players as much as they hit him, you'd think he'd be a little less of a whiner.

PHILADELPHIA (-14) ovr Arizona - That's a lot of points, but the Cardinals really suck. I give Ken Whisenhunt until about Week 8 next season to turn it around before he is canned.

Baltimore (-6.5) over SEATTLE - This is actully a tricky game. It's exactly the type of game the Ravens have struggled with this year. They play down to their competition. They got crushed by Jacksonville and Tennessee, and almost got stunned by Arizona. This could be close.

New York Giants (+3.5) over SAN FRANCISCO - OK, this game screams setback for the Giants. I mean, they are coming off a huge win where Eli Manning showed he can be an elite quarterback, and their defense just shut down Tom Brady. It only makes sense that Eli would suck in this one and Alex Smith would look like Tom Brady supposed to look. But for some reason I think only a field goal will decide this one.

New England (+2) over NEW YORK JETS - Has Brady ever lost three games in a row? Yes, but it was back in 2002. It hasn't happened since, and I don't think it will happen this week.

GREEN BAY (-13) over Minnesota - If I didn't love the Steelers and think they have a legit shot of winning the Supe Bowl this year, I would be cheering like crazy for the Packers to go 19-0 this season. I can still cheer for them to go 16-0.

Kenny Loggins - Footloose

Not very Happy in the Valley

2011-11-09T21:07:00.001-05:00

By Greg

I didn’t know who Jerry Sandusky was until this story broke on ESPN back in March. I skimmed the article and thought to myself, “Wow, that’s horrible. I’m glad he’s been gone for 12 years.” Little did I know that while I was partying with friends and enjoying some of the best years of my life, he was assaulting vulnerable children on Penn State University premises.

The way that Penn State University has handled this situation is embarrassing to say the least. The question that everyone is asking is, “how much did Joe know?” Well, he knew enough to regret not doing more and that’s about all you need to know. The answer that I’m seeking for is why didn’t he contact the police? Was this a cover up for his friend that he had worked with for 30 years? It’s possible and if that’s true I will have lost a lot of respect for him. But what would Joe have to gain by doing that? It wouldn’t have tarnished the football program if he went to the police as soon as he became aware of the crime, but it sure has now.

I truly believe that this was not a cover up of Jerry Sandusky. It was swept under the rug because no one wanted to acknowledge the horrifying things that were happening. This is the problem with sexual abuse. No one wants to talk about it.

I have read every single article that I have been able to get my hands on in the past few days, including the disgusting 23 page grand jury indictment. However, I get the feeling that most people haven’t read that grand jury report. The general population is asking, “why didn’t Joe Paterno and Mike McQueary do anything except contact their superiors?” I came away thinking, “why didn’t anyone do anything?” Shouldn’t the parents, teachers, and principals have done more?

This is a brief summary of missed opportunities for people to report the sexual abuse that was inevitably occurring.

Victim 1, as well as several other students, was routinely taken out of school by Sandusky with no questions asked. They would pull him out of whatever class or study hall he was in and allow Sandusky to meet with the victim in an unmonitored conference room. The victim’s mother called the principal and asked her to check into it. The principal called back in tears, “you need to come down here right away.” Sandusky was barred from the school district and the matter was reported to authorities.

Victim 1 was also involved in an incident one night in the weight room after hours. As Sandusky was lying on him, the school’s wrestling coach walked in to check why the lights were on. Sandusky quickly jumped up and explained that they were wrestling. Since Sandusky was not a wrestling coach and they were just lying on the ground next to each other, the coach was very suspicious. This incident was not reported.

Victim 6 was forced to shower with Sandusky and was sexually assaulted in the shower. When the child was dropped off at home, his mother immediately questioned why his hair was wet. She learned that her son had showered with Sandusky and reported the incident to University Police, who investigated it. This investigation included a second child, who was subjected to identical treatment in the shower as Victim 6. Furthermore, the detective, with the consent of Victim 6’s mother, eavesdropped on two conversations between Sandusky and Victim 6’s mother. Sandusky admitted that he had showered with other boys and he refused to promise to Victim 6’s mother that we would stop showering with Victim 6. When the mother asked Sandusky if he touched Victim 6’s private parts, he replied, “I don’t think so…maybe.” When Sandusky was told that he could no longer see Victim 6 anymore, he responded, “I understand. I was wrong. I wish I could get forgiveness. I know I won’t get it from you. I wish I were dead.” Two weeks later the detective interviewed Sandusky directly. Sandusky admitted to showering naked with Victim 6, hugging Victim 6 in the shower, and that it was wrong. The detective advised Sandusky not to shower with any child again and they decided there would be no criminal charges.

How is this not what we’re talking about right now?!?! I’ve been hearing over the past few days that Joe Paterno should have contacted the police. The police investigated a case in 1998 involving Sandusky with two identical cases. He admitted to showering with children and they ignored it. In my mind, those detectives were the real enablers and they should be serving jail time right beside Sandusky.

I am not trying to justify the actions of Joe Paterno or Mike McQueary. They obviously could have prevented more incidents from occurring. But as Rick Reilly wrote, “it’s about everybody not taking more steps that might have stopped it.” This is truly a sad story that does not have any heroes. Children’s lives have been destroyed and it is disgusting that these types of crimes occur. According to a 1998 study on child sexual abuse by Boston University Medical School, one in six boys in America will be abused by age 16. For girls, it's one in four by the age of 14. Read that again and think about it. My only hope is that people now have a better understanding of how serious this issue is. We need to educate our children about the initial warning signs to look for before it is too late.

Penn State officials failed humanity test

2011-11-08T21:30:00.001-05:00

By Jeff

Penn State University messed up in so many ways with this controversy regarding former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky's alleged sexual abuse of multiple underage boys.

First, the alleged abuse began as far back as 15 years ago, and we're just hearing about it now. These are children we're talking about. If there was any chance this story was true, it needed to be addressed back then.

Second, Penn State athletic director Tim Curley and senior vice president for finance and business Gary Schultz clearly did something wrong. They are being charged with perjury and failed to inform authorities of what they knew regarding the controversy. They could have easily stopped this from the beginning but were apparently too busy with damage control.

Third, if it is true that the graduate assistant saw Sandusky with a 10-year-old in the shower, he should have done more than just go to coach Joe Paterno. I know it's hard to put ourselves in his position, but I'd like to think that if I were in his position, I would either stop the abuse myself by any means necessary, or I would call the police immediately. I would not go running and ask someone else to do so.

Fourth, Joe Paterno may have legally done all he was required to do to not be implicated in this controversy when he told his superiors of what the graduate assistant told him. He didn't see anything himself. I get that defense. But I also think the man had an obligation to not just pass it off and put it out of his mind. A man who worked under him and was allowed access to campus facilities as recently as LAST WEEK, may have been sexually abusing children. Paterno should have inquired the incident further.

The biggest failure of all the people above, especially Sandusky, is that of human decency and morality. You don't just brush off an alleged sex scandal of children because it would give the university a bad name if it made it to the press. Not if you consider yourself a good person. You leave no stone unturned and you do whatever it takes to figure out if the man actually did it or not. If he did, you better make damn sure he is prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and is never allowed on campus again. You don't just ban him from bringing more children to campus.

Let's look at that part of the story for a moment. If Paterno, the grad assistant, Curley or Schultz went to the police back in 2002 when they first heard about the issue, other children would have been spared alleged abuse from Sandusky. Banning a sexual predator from bringing his prey to a specific place does not protect potential victims. Not in any way, shape or form. It just takes away one place for him to assault children.

Imagine if you're a parent and one of your sons went to one of Sandusky's camps. You know what, I can't imagine that situation. And their anger and distrust should not be limited to Sandusky. They should be pissed at all of the above individuals. Paterno, Curley and Schultz endangered countless children. All it would have taken to protect these children was a simple phone call. All they needed to was dial three digits and report what they knew or suspected.

Instead they took the easy road and completely failed as humans.

Week 9 picks

2011-11-06T12:18:00.000-05:00

By Jeff

OK, so last week I said my fiancee was making my picks. She made about three before she got bored and said she was going to go downstairs eat. She was very excited at first, but then she didn't like having to pick the points. It's not that she didn't understand the spread, she just thought it was stupid.

Together we went 7-5-1 for the week and improved my season record to 47-46-6. Woooo! Over .500 halfay through the season! But will I have a Pittsburgh Pirates-like collapse? It's very possible looking at some of the picks I made. I'm specifically talking about the Dallas (+3) over Philadelphia. Definitely the miss of the week.

Week 9 is below and the home teams are in caps.

Atlanta (-6.5) over INDIANAPOLIS - Countless people have said it, but I need to repeat that this season has shown just how good Peyton Manning is, and he hasn't played a snap. This team is almost identical to last year's division champonship squad, yet they are 0-8. The one missing piece is Manning.

TampaBay (+8.5) over NEW ORLEANS - I just have no idea what the Saints or the Bucs are going to do.

Cleveland (+10.5) over HOUSTON - The Texans are going to win, but the Browns actually have a real defense this year. They should keep it close.

BUFFALO (-2.5) over New York Jets - The Ryan brothers are really annoying. Has there ever been such an obnoxious duo of people who haven't really won anything in this league? Rob Ryan has never even been a head coach, and Rex talks Super Bowl every year yet they have never been there. And Rex is single-handedly responsible for every one overusing the word swagger. I hope they never win again.

KANSAS CITY (-5) over Miami - The Chiefs are a completely different team than they were the first two weeks of the season. I guess some teams just took longer to get back into shape following the lockout.

San Francisco (-5) over WASHINGTON - Can we please admit that Mike Shannahan is not a very good coach. He had John Elway and Terrell Davis. When he didn't have those stars in Denver he didn't succeed. And he is not succeeding in Washington. His rotating running back strategy doesn't work, and he was OK with Rex Grossman and John Beck as his quarterbacks. Other than awesome teeth, the man doesn't bring anything to the table.

DALLAS (-11) over Seattle - Blah.

OAKLAND (-7) over Denver - Why is kneeling in prayer now known as "Tebowing"? Countless professional athletes pray when they score or win. Tebow shouldn't be singled out. On the flip side, he is really bad and gets more attention than some good to very good quarterbacks. It's really strange.

Cincinnati (+2.5) over TENNESSEE - Who would have thought the AFC North would be one of best divisions in footbll this year? The Steelers and Ravens are usually good, but no one expected the Browns and the Bengals to compete much this year. Yet here are the Bengals, winners of four straight. The Titans started hot, but I think they're going to start tailing off with Chris Johnson playing like crap.

St. Louis (+2.5) over ARIZONA - Is there a bigger "who cares" game this week?

New York Giants (+9.5) over NEW ENGLAND - The Pats don't lose at home in the regular season, but the Giants have the front seven to really annoy and bother Tom Brady.

Green Bay (-5.5) over SAN DIEGO - The Chargers are doing whatever they can to lose. That continues this week.

PITTSBURGH (-3.5) over Baltimore - Is there a quarterback other than Aaron Rodgers playing better than Ben Roethlisberger right now? I would say no. And Joe Flacco is playing pretty terrible.

Chicago (+7.5) over PHILADELPHIA - I think the Bears are fast enough to keep Michael Vick under control. Jay Cutler is still a bitch.

Frightened Rabbit - Backwards Walk

Week 8 picks

2011-10-30T12:07:00.000-04:00

By Jeff

Sorry the delay. The power was out here until 11 this morning. I'll make this quick.

Last week I somehow forgot the New Orleans-Indianapolis game last week, which sucks as I would have picks New Orleans. Oh well, I went 5-6-1 as a result of that brain fart and move to 40-41-5 on the year. The big miss was taking Oakland to cover against Kansas City. How was I supposed to know Kyler Boller and Carson Palmer would combine for four picks? Actually, that sounds a lot more probable than them leading the team to victory.

So once again my picks are mediocre. We'll see what happens when my fiancee does the picking this week, as she usually crushed me.

The home teams are in caps.

TENNESSEE (-8) over Indianapolis
Jacksonville (+10) over HOUSTON
CAROLINA (-3) over Minnesota
New Orleans (-13.5) over ST. LOUIS
Arizona (+12) over BALTIMORE
NEW YORK GIANTS (-9.5) over Miami
BUFFALO (-4.5) over Washington
Detroit (-3) over DENVER
PITTSBURGH (+2.5) over New England
SAN FRANCISCO (-9) over Cleveland
Cincinnati (-1.5) over SEATTLE
Dallas (+3) over PHILADELPHIA
San Diego (-3) over KANSAS CITY

Baseball trivia

2011-10-27T13:15:00.001-04:00

By Jeff

Greg sent out a baseball question last week, which inspired this post. Test your baseball knowledge! Please try to resist the urge to Google or use other search engines, Web sites, baseball almanacs, other blogs or friends.

What active pitcher(s) has the most postseason wins?
Albert Pujols has the fourth most postseason hits among active players. Who are the other top 3 (No order)?
What player had the most hits in the 1990s?

The following questions are all regarding 2000-2010

Who hit the most home runs in the decade?
What year did Barry Bonds hit 72 home runs?
Who was the only player to collect 2,000 hits in the decade?
What team used a rally monkey on their way to a World Series win?
What team only dropped one game en route to the championship?
Who did the Red Sox beat in 2007 World Series?
Jake Westbrook had the most wins for the Indians in 2006. Who had the second and third most wins for the team that season?
Who did Roger Clemens throw a broken bat at in the 2000 "Subway Series"?
Which team won 116 games in 2001, but didn't get to the World Series?
Who was the 2004 World Series MVP?

Got more? share them.

Don Henley - Boys of Summer

Thoughts on Tebow's comeback

2011-10-26T13:33:00.000-04:00

By Jeff

Has there ever been an NFL game between two terrible teams so hyped before last Sunday's Denver-Miami contest? The teams came in boasting a combined 1-9 record. Yet all the analysts and sports shows were watching for one reason. That reason was Tim Tebow was starting.

And what a start it was. For three and a half quarters, Tebow was dreadful. I've had the pleasure to watch the game earlier this week on replay. It was painful and made me hate football for three hours.

Of course, the Tebow lovers out there will point out that it was the first time in NFL history a team came back from a 15-point deficit with five minutes left to win. This is true, but come on. We're talking about the Miami Dolphins. The 0-6 Miami Dolphins who have lost nine straight games if you go back to last year. The Miami Dolphins who were starting Matt Moore at quarterback.

Tebow was 13-for-27 with two touchdowns and less than 170 yards through the air. He did well with some runs and ended up ith more than 60, but it was not a good start.

He absolutely had a great throw to tight end Daniel Fells to set up the touchdown. Fells also made a great catch. And on that second touchdown, go back and look at how at least one offensive lineman was illegally down the field. Just something to keep in mind before we declare this one of the greatest wins in the history of the sports world.

There was also a great story on Grantland that pointed out how the rest of the Broncos team was more responsible for the win than Tebow. They got onside kick, and they recovered the fumble that set up the winning field goal.

This is really turning into more of a hatefest than I intended, so I apologize. You can't deny that Tebow is a born leader. His team rallies around him wherever he plays. He is charismatic and you can tell he lives for the game. He is the type of player you want in the locker room and to have your back.

Right now there seems to be a trend with all of these teams (I'm looking at you Ravens, Dolphins, Colts and Jets) having players call out coaches and fellow players. Tebow will never do that. Look back to his press conference after he and the Florida Gators lost to Ole Miss. He took responsibility, promised he'd do what it took to ensure the team never lost again that season, and then he delivered. There is no question he has the heart and attitude to succeed in the NFL. I just don't think he has the skill set.

You can have an awkward throwing motion in the NFL and get away with it. Phillip Rivers is the perfect example. The difference between Rivers and Tebow, though, is that Rivers' motion allows him to get rid of the ball quick. Tebow's takes a lot of time. In the NFL, that usually translates to problems.

Tebow also doesn't see the field well right now. This is something he should improve on, but it's not happening right now. If his man isn't open when he looks at him, Tebow isn't throwing it that way. The guy could be open in another step, but Tebow is already looking elsewhere or tucking it. I think that should change as he gets more comfortable with his receivers and they with him. He did just lose his best option in Brandon Lloyd, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt there.

So now that I've made nice, I want to get back to all the hype surrounding that game. It was so overblown and ridiculous. It overshadowed so many other, more interesting storylines (This seems to be a running theme with Tebow coverage). Let's look at a few that were hardly covered, if at all, by the media.

The Texans destroying Tennessee and maybe on their way to a first-ever playoff appearance
The Chiefs shutting out the Raiders and improving to 3-3. They've won three in a row and the AFC West is wide open
The Chargers' atrocious clock management, strategy and execution in the second half
Can analysts finally admit they may have been wrong when they gushed about Joe Flacco?
What are the Dolphins waiting for in firing Tony Sparano? The team has given up on him and life
Here are some players with a higher passer rating than Kevin Kolb: Alex Smith, Curtis Painter, Andy Dalton, Mark Sanchez, Donovan McNabb, Cam Newton, Tavaris Jackson, Matt Cassel and Chad Henne
Other than Jackson, Cassel and Henne, all of the above names also have higher passer ratings than Rivers as well
Other than his 10-catch, 172-yard performance against New England, Vincent Jackson has 14 catches for 251 yards in the other five games combined this season. Thhis is a year after he held out for more than half the season and tried to hold up CBA negotiations this summer because he didn't want to be franchised. I drafted him in three fantasy leagues. Balls

Kenny Loggins ft. Michael McDonald - This is It

Week 7 picks

2011-10-22T21:11:00.000-04:00

By Jeff

No time to really get into detail this week. I'm bidding on house and am nervous.

After a 6-6-1 Week 6, I'm 35-35-4 on the season. The biggest miss was picking the Dallas Cowboys to cover against the New England Patriots and then switching. Cowardly move on my part.

Week 7 is below and the home teams are in caps.

Tampa Bay (+1.5) over Chicago - I have no idea what will happen in the London game. Jay Cutler will probably be sacked a lot.

Washington (+2.5) over CAROLINA - I get that John Beck is not great, but neither was Rex Grossman.

San Diego (+1) over NEW YORK JETS - The Jets have a terrible offense.

CLEVELAND (-3) over Seattle - Pretty sure I just saw an injury report that both of Seattle's quarterbacks are doubtful.

Houston (+3) over TENNESSEE - This is a huge game. The two fantasy MVPs from the past two years with their big receivers hurt. Going with the points.

Denver (PK) over MIAMI - The Dolphins are so bad I'm picking Tebow.

Atlanta (+4) over DETROIT - Not sure how the Lions are going to rebound from last week's tough loss.

OAKLAND (-4) over Kansas City - I can't name five offensive starters for the Chiefs.

Pittsburgh (-3.5) over ARIZONA - Poor Larry Fitzgerald. The man could be one of the best to play thegame, yet he is having seasons wasted away because of poor quarterback play.

DALLAS (-14) over St. Louis - The Rams really suck.

Green Bay (-9.5) over MINNESOTA - I understand why the Vikings are starting Christian Ponder. Donovan McNabb was not getting it done. Of course, having your first NFL start against a great defense led by Charles Woodson is rough. Ponder will struggle a lot and the Packers will roll.

Baltimore (-9) over JACKSONVILLE - Jack Del Rio's seat has to be burning right now.

Tom Petty - You Wreck Me

Losing faith in humanity

2011-10-20T20:17:00.000-04:00

By Jeff

Moammar Qaddafi, the former tyrannical leader of Libya was killed today. He was an evil man and I'm not sad one bit about his death. But that doesn't mean I enjoyed the video on Yahoo of his corpse being paraded around.

I'm not proud to say I watched it. But I did. I wish I didn't. It was gruesome. No matter how many video games or movies you've seen where there are corpses, it really doesn't desensitize you to a real dead body. Well, at least not me.

I'm sure there are people out there who saw the video and nodded approval or just didn't give it much of a thought. The fact major news outlets are showing the video is proof of that.

There was a time that kind of footage would never be shown. My instinct would be to not run it, just as I would not have released photos of Osama Bin Laden despite many cries to do so. Maybe I sound lame, but with as much violence, fake and real, in the world, do we really need to see a corpse of a fallen enemy? Does it bring us more closure than just knowing an evil person is gone?

It's not as if seeing video would make those who would doubt Qaddafi (or Bin Laden) are actually dead change their minds and be convinced. So once again, what is the point of releasing this video? I understand that it was Al Jazeera who released the footage, but Yahoo and other US outlets didn't have to follow suit.

More Philly radio whining

2011-10-19T17:32:00.000-04:00

By Jeff

When the Philadelphia Phillies lost, the town of Philadelphia was pretty crushed. Their radio stations jumped all over this and asked their callers to call in the week following to share how sad they were about the loss.

This week is something new. Now some of their popular radio hosts and the callers are crying about the Major League Baseball playoff format.

What are they crying about? The best-of-five series in the Divisional Round. Apparently it's not fair that a team that won more than 100 games only gets one more home game than the wild card team with 90 wins.

My favorite complaint of a radio host here, Mike Missanelli, is that the five-game series doesn' let the No. 1 seed comeback if they lose Game 2. His example was Cliff Lee not getting an opportunity to pitch two games, especially after blowing Game 2 this year.

You have to be kidding me. The advantage the Phillies had was they were playing the team with the worst record in the playoffs. They had one more home game and a better team. What more of an advantage do you need? To blame the format for the loss is a joke. The offense couldn't score a run in their biggest game of the season. That's why they lost.

Also, even if it is a seven-game series, the higher seed would still only have one more home game. You have more time to come back, but if they played to the level they should have and were capable of, it would have never got to Game 5.

As annoying as it is to hear these excuses, and I'm finding there is always an excuse for Philly sports teams, it's fun hearing these members of the sports media and the fans talk up their teams so much, only to watch them choke.

Bad Company - Shooting Star

Schwartz and Harbaugh tussle overblown

2011-10-17T18:55:00.000-04:00

By Jeff

The little pushing contest between Detroit Lions head coach Jim Schwartz and San Francisco 49ers head coach John Harbaugh was entertaining. It's not often coaches get in each others' faces. Usually we just hear them trading barbs back and forth through the media.

With that being said, should it really be the biggest story coming out of Week 6? It wasn't even much of a scrum. One guy shook a hand too hard and gave too hard of a pat on the back. The other then chased him down the field. That's it.

And lost in that was a game that saw five or six lead changes throughout. That is the story. The 49ers and Lions are 5-1 this season. One of them will probably have a first-round bye in the playoffs if they keep this up. Yet what most people are talking about is a over enthusiastic handshake.

As I'm watching Sportscenter right now they are calling it Handshake gate. Seriously? It has it's own name?

This type of thing really annoys me, as you can tell. There are probably 10 better, more interesting storylines from the weekend's games. Did the Dallas Cowboys give a blue print to stall the New England offense? Should we really worry about the Cincinnati Bengals? Are the Oakland Raiders the favorite to win the AFC West? Will the New York Giants ever be consistent? Will the Tampa Bay Bucs ever be consistent? Are the Philadelphia Eagles back?

All of these deserve more time than a handshake that ended in shoving.

Velvet Underground - Heroin

Week 6 NFL picks

2011-10-15T21:48:00.000-04:00

By Jeff

Who would have thought that the biggest game in Week 6 this season would be the Detroit Lions and the San Francisco 49ers? Prior to the start of this season, their own fans probably thought this would be a terrible game.

That is the beauty of the NFL. There are surprise teams every year. Even if you thought Detroit was going to improve, I doubt you thought the 49ers, who still have Alex Smith at quarterback, would be 4-1 at this point. Hell, I doubt you thought they'd win four games this entire season. I know I didn't expect it.

As for the season results, I'm at .500 baby! I'm 29-29-3 after going 7-6 this week. The miss of Week 5 was Tampa Bay to cover when they lost by more than 40 points. I did not see that coming. I should have seen the Chicago Bears' offensive line getting destroyed by the Lions. It pains me to admit it, but Jay Cutler is showing he's a pretty tough individual. He has no protection and is getthing killed back there, yet still manages to stay in the game and play pretty well.

Enough about Cutler. It's time for Week 6. The home teams are in caps.

GREEN BAY (-14) over St. Louis - After last season, the Rams looked like they were on the verge of not sucking anymore. It's safe to say they are back on track.

PITTSBURGH (-12.5) over Jacksonville - Even if this defense's age was hindering them, and it's not, the Steelers would still make Blaine Gabbert's life miserable.

Philadelphia (-3) over WASHINGTON - Rex Grossman is due for an atrocious day where he throws four picks and looks terrified in the pocket.

San Francisco (+4) over DETROIT - Why do I keep picking agains Detroit? In all honesty, I think Calvin Johnson should have even more touchdowns than he does. Seriously, just throw the ball up to him any time you're in the red zone and there is an 80 percent chance he comes down with it.

Carolina (+3.5) over ATLANTA - The Falcons look lost right now.

Indianapolis (+6.5) over CINCINNATI - I don't think the Bengals are good enough to beat anyone by this much.

Buffalo (+3) over NEW YORK GIANTS - Eli Manning is the worst "good" quarterback in the league. You can't take away his tremendous performance in the team's Super Bowl victory, but you can look at his numbers since then and he is a turnover machine. Sometimes he can be really good, but more often he is mediocre or downright bad.

BALTIMORE (-7) over Houston - The Texans don't have their best defensive player in Mario Williams, so they won't get much pressue on Joe Flacco.

OAKLAND (+6.5) over Cleveland - For the first time in about 10 years it's actually fun to watch Raiders games. Weird.

Dallas (+6.5) over NEW ENGLAND - Wait, it's the Patriots at home. Please switch that. Tom Brady does not lose in Foxborough during the regular season. And other than Sean Lee, it's not like Dallas has much going for it on defense.

New Orleans (-5.5) over TAMPA BAY - Is it me, or are all the young quarterbacks that were all supposed to make big strides this season sucking a whole lot? Josh Freeman, Matt Ryan and Sam Bradford were all very good players last year. This year, they all have been pretty bad. This is especially weird because offenses are putting up ridiculous numbers this year.

Minnesota (+2.5) over CHICAGO - What I really mean is Adrian Peterson (+2.5) over CHICAGO.

NEW YORK JETS (-6.5) over Miami - The Dolphins are going to be starting their 16th quarterback since Dan Marino retired following the 1999 season. They really need to lose and get Andrew Luck.

Otis Redding - Try A Little Tenderness

Pens looking good after first week

2011-10-15T11:25:00.000-04:00

By Jeff

The Pittsburgh Penguins tallied eight of 10 possible point in the first week of the NHL season. One loss came in overtime to the Washington Capitals and one came in a shootout on the road in a game Evgni Malkin didn't play in. That's a great start to the season.

In the long seasons of the NBA, NHL and MLB, you tend to hear people say the first few months don't matter that much. I understand that line of thought. Winning games late in the season and getting hot at the right time is better than starting great and fading down the stretch when the playoffs come.

But stockpiling points in the beginning of the season can ease the pressure and can make the difference between a playoff team and one that just misses. Just ask the Boston Red Sox. They started 2-10. If they had won one of those games, they probably would have avoided the biggest collapse in MLB history.

The same goes for hockey. Points early in the season on the road, like the five the Pens got in the first three games of the season in Western Canada, can make all the difference come playoff time. While I think the team would easily make the playoffs even if they lost those games, it those five points could get them home ice when they get there.

I get that I'm looking way too far ahead and too into this, but hot starts are important in any sport. Every win counts the same, so it's kind of silly to me when I hear people saying the early going doesn;t matter.

What's also encouraging from the first week is the return of James Neal. In more than 20 games with the Pens last year, Neal had two goals. In five games this season, he has four. The man is the goal-scoring winger the team has needed for a few years now.

To complement Neal is Steve Sullivan and Evgeni Malkin. When they are on a line together good things happen. Malkin's knee was a little sore, but the man is definitely back. Just watch him bust his ass up and down the ice. There's some rust, as expected, but it's fading and I'm just waiting for the game where he takes over. It's going to happen soon.

The power play seems to be doing pretty well. I don't want to jinx it, but it's certainly better than it was in the postseason last year.

Oh, and Sidney Crosby has been cleared for full contact. Pens fans have a lot to be excited about.

Karmin - Super Bass

Philly sports radio is sad

2011-10-13T20:19:00.000-04:00

By Jeff

Pittsburgh sports radio is not great. Some hosts are good, some are unbearable. I'm pretty sure that's how every city in the country with sports radio is.

But holy crap is Philadelphia sports radio bad. First, Ron Jaworski has a weekly show. Do I have to say more. It's like he can't say "NFL". He has to say "National Football League" every time.

Second, with the Philadelphia Phillies failing in the first round of the playoffs, and the Eagles 1-4, 97.5 FM has resorted to promoting the suckiness of Philly sports. How so? Their promos ask you to call in and share your sadness, anger, disappointment regarding the failures of the Eagles and Phillies.

Third, it's like they don't care about the Flyers. Well, I guess it's a good thing we don't have to hear about it.

Fourth, the callers are ridiculous. OK, all radio callers are fairly stupid. Pittsburgh is no different. But there were several calls in an hour complaining about Roy Halladay in Game 5 of the NLDS. Yeah, he gave up one run in the first inning, but shut out the St. Louis Cardinals over the next seven innings. Oh, and the team lost 1-0. There is no way a team could possibly win without scoring runs.

It almost makes me miss Andrew Filipponi. I wonder if he still wants to trade Fluery?

Autograph - Turn Up the Radio

Crosby cleared for contact

2011-10-13T20:04:00.000-04:00

By Jeff

I wanted to say something about this all day but that stupid work thing got in the way.

Sidney Crosby has been cleared for contact. There is still no word about when he'll make his return, but this is great news.

November seems like a real possibility for a Crosby return. The rest of the league just shit themselves a little bit.

Foo Fighters - Last Song

Week 5 picks

2011-10-08T22:23:00.000-04:00

By Jeff

Almost back to .500. It took me about 10 or 12 weeks to get this close to .500 last season. I went 9-7 last week and am 22-23-3. Two winning weeks in a row? I'm as shocked as you are.

Before we get to the picks, let's just take a moment to recognize how ridiculous passing has become in the NFL. Throwing for 400 yards in a game used to be rare for even the best quarterbacks in the league. Now guys like Chad Henne are doing it. It's absolutely crazy.

So what's the cause of this offensive explosion? Were defenses more affected by the lockout than offenses? Probably. I also think the league has made it easier to pass. A lot of cornerbacks seem to be afraid of making a big hit because they fear getting flagged for hitting a defenseless receiver. I'm glad if helmet-to-helmet hits get wiped out, but I've seen a few penalties where the receiver has caught the ball, landed, started to move forward and then get tackled hard and the defensive player is hit with a 15-yard penalty. Let them play football, refs!

OK, rant over. The miss of the Week 4 was saying the Green Bay Packers wouldn't cover against the Denver Broncos. I really don't know what I was thinking. Don't ask me to explain myself.

Home teams are in caps.

Kansas City (+2) over INDIANAPOLIS: The Chiefs burned me pretty bad I took them, but I believe in second chances. Except when it comes to mustard. When I was at the beach at age 3, my dad had a pretzel and what looked to be a cheese sauce. So I had some of the pretzel and sauce. It was mustard. Have you ever thought you were eating cheese and it turned out to be mustard? There is quite a difference. So I have never eaten mustard again. I can't do it.

Arizona (+3) over MINNESOTA: It's kind of ridiculous how much the city of Philadelphia hates Donovan McNabb. They want to see him fail in every aspect of life. He took them to he only Super Bowl they've been to that most can remember (Have they been to another? Somebody do some research, damnit!). He led them to multiple NFC title games and was a great player for them. Yet they dwell on the negative. It's weird.

Philadelphia (-3) over BUFFALO: Fred Jackson is going to have a fun day for the Bills, but it won't be enough. The Eagles have so much talent and just haven't been able to find any consistency on offense. I think they find it Sunday.

Oakland (+5) over HOUSTON: Do you believe in the idea that the Raiders will be motivated to win for their late owner, Al Davis? Or do you believe that heart and motivation means nothing in sports (I'm looking at all you sabremeticians.)? I believe in the former.

New Orleans (-6.5) over CAROLINA: R.J., do you still think Cam Newton was the wrong choice? By the way, I apologize for not responding to comments. Every time I try to comment it tells me I'm not signed in. And if you're not signed in, you can't comment. It sucks and I'm sorry.

Cincinnati (-1) over JACKSONVILLE: It's so sad no one in the country will be able to watch this awesome game on TV. So sad.

PITTSBURGH (-3) over Tennessee: I love how ESPN analysts and Mike Golic (Not the same thing.) keep saying the Steelers' defense is showing their age. It wasn't the defense that cost them the game last week. The offense only put up 10 points and the offensive line nearly got Ben Roethlisberger killed. The defense is still strong. It's the offense that is screwing this team up.

NEW YORK GIANTS (-9.5) over Seattle: The Seahawks are terrible in 1 p.m. games on the east coast.

Tampa Bay (+3) over SAN FRANCISCO: The Bucsdon't win pretty, but they win.

NEW ENGLAND (-7.5) over New York Jets: Bill Belichick and Tom Brady don't like to lose. So when they lose to a team, especially in the playoffs the year before, they tend to seek to embarrass said team. That's what's going to happen in this one. Look for Brady to throw for 450 yards (411 of them going to Wes Welker) and the Pats to win by at least two scores.

San Diego (-3.5) over DENVER: The Chargers haven't been hyped much this year. Maybe that's what they need to actually do something come January.

Green Bay (-5.5) over ATLANTA: Aaron Rodgers' touchdown celebration is so annoying. Mostly because I wish I had come up with it during my flag football days.

Chicago (+5) over DETROIT: The Lions have barely escaped two horrible starts the last two weeks. Their comebacks have been insane. I think they pull this one out, but it's by another field goal.

Jackson Browne - Doctor My Eyes

It's a hockey night in Pittsburgh!!!

2011-10-06T19:21:00.000-04:00

By Jeff

OK, the Pittsburgh Penguins are playing in Vancouver against the Canucks, and I'm in Philadelphia, but you get my point. Hockey is back!

While every year since Sidney Crosby was drafted has been big, this season feels like it has the potential to be the most intense and exciting. Word from the media and the team is the Evgeni Malkin revved up his workout routine and wants to carry this team to another Stanley Cup.

Sidney Crosby is going to come back, my guess is late November, but will he be the same player he was before his concussion last year. I wonder if other teams and their fans have forgotten that he was head and shoulders above the rest of the league last year before he got hurt? They'll remember soon enough.

The defense that was one the best in the league last year has had another year to come together. Zbynek Michalek and Paul Martin have had a full year of playing together and learning the team's system. They are going to be sick.

Marc-Andre Fleury will be hated upon by my brother, father and half of Pittsburgh. Then Fleury will tear shit up and cause these haters to go hide in holes for months at a time.

Dan Bylsma has the most to prove. He went from the golden child who won a cup in his first half season, to premature playoff exits the past two years. He won the Jack Adams last season, but even I have to admit he seemed too stubborn to adjust at times. Will he be more willing this year? He's going to need to be.

Will the power play not suck all season? Some fans like to cling to the hope that one player can make a difference each year. Last year it was Alexei Kovalev. This year it's Steve Sullivan. It takes more than one guy to make the power play effective. They need to stop being fancy, move around and get the puck to the net, damnit!

It's going to be a fun, thrilling, sometimes frustrating, intense season. I can't wait.

Go Pens.

Warren Zevon - Hit Somebody

Handing out MLB hardware

2011-10-06T19:10:00.000-04:00

By Jeff

I made predictons on the MLB awards in an earlier post, but here are my picks now that we've actually seen them play this season.

National League

Rookie of the Year - Craig Kimbrel of the Atlanta Braves may have blown Game 162, but he still had a great season. He finished the year with 46 saves and a 2.10 ERA. He is a big reason the Braves were in the hunt in the first place. He wore down at the end, but he should be good for a long time.
Cy Young - Clayton Kershaw deserves this award. He played on a bad team, yet won the triple crown of pitchers. He led the NL in wins (21), strikeouts (248) and ERA (2.28). There is no way the Los Angeles Dodgers would have finished above 70 wins without Kershaw. I don't care if his WAR is under 7, this team does not come close to 76 wins (they had 82) without Kershaw. Try and argue that point, Mike! Ian Kennedy is my runner-up. This is no knock on my boy Roy Halladay or Cliff Lee. They just weren't as good as these two this year. There was also less pressure on the Phillies aces. They never had to be the stopper, because if Halladay faltered, Lee and Hamels were coming up next.
Comeback Player - I never thought I'd ever give Ryan Vogelsong an award. Never. But here I am telling you he deserves this award. It's not that Vogelsong had a bad year and then was really good this year. Until 2011, the man hadn't pitched in the Majors since 2006! And when he did pitch in the majors, he sucked. A lot. But all was forgotten in 2011 with his 13 wins, 2.71 ERA and 1.25 WHIP.
Manager - Kirk Gibson has the Arizona Diamondbacks one win away from the NLCS without any real stars outside Justin Upton. No one saw that coming and Gibson did an amazing job.
MVP - This one was tough. Matt Kemp had the stats for it, but he wasn't even the most valuable player on his team. Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder are both deserving, but they could split votes. So who's left? Justin Upton. That's who I'm saying today. I might change tomorrow. His stats might not be as impressive as the three above (31 HR, .289 AVG, 88 RBIs, 21 SB and 105 runs. The Diamondbacks' lineup would struggle without this man. With him, they are dangerous. Without him they are bunch of OK players that wouldn't scare many teams. It's called Most Valuable Player, not the guy who has the best stats.

American League

Rookie of the Year - I want to go against the grain and say Mark Trumbo from the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim is going to take this award, but the Rays' Jeremy Hellickson really stepped up. The most impressive of Helickson's stats is he pitched 189 innings. That's not common in today's game where rookie pitchers are usually on strict pitch counts. Oh, he also had an ERA of 2.95.
Cy Young - Justin Verlander from the Detroit Tigers is one of the most obvious choices for this award I can remember. More on him late (Spoiler alert!)
Comeback Player - There is no great story in the AL like Vogelsong. No player coming back from an extended abscence or anything like that. Instead I'll go with the Boston Red Sox's Jacoby Ellsbury. He had an incredible year (32 HR, .321 AVG, 105 RBIs, 39 SB and 119 runs). Now, his numbers are certainly deserving of MVP consideration, but just consider this: His home run total in his first 349 games was 20. Hmmm. When Jose Bautista had his big power jump there were a lot of steriod rumors. Where are they for Ellsbury?
Manager - I want to be a homer and give it to Jim Leyland (He's from Pittsburgh.), but I can't deny Joe Maddon's great run with the Rays. The team cut their payroll by around $30 million this year to a little over $40 million. That's about $120 million less than the Red Sox. Sure, the players should get most of the credit, but you have to give Maddon some love too.
MVP - Pitchers have the Cy Young, so they rarely win the MVP, but Verlander deserves it. There is no way the Tigers even sniff the playoffs without Verlander. He had 24 wins, 250 strikeouts, 251 innings pitched and was just incredible. The numbers can't tell you how effective Verlander was. I can't imagine what hitters were thinking going up against him. One pitch he's throwing 100 mph fastballs, the next he is tossing a breaking ball in the 80s. And he will throw any pitch at any time. I love Jose Bautista and the Toronto Blue Jays, but they didn't make the playoffs with him. Verlander led the Tigers to the playoffs, and is the only candidate you can say is the one reason his team is in the playoffs.

Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band - My Love Will Not Let You Down

NFL picks: Week 4

2011-10-01T21:34:00.000-04:00

By Jeff

This will be quick as I've been kinda swamped.

Last week I went 8-7-1 and am 13-16-3 on the season (I didn't do picks in Week 1). My miss of the week was the Steelers -10.5 over Indy. The Colts' defensive line destroyed the Steelers' O-line. It was ridiculous how many times Dwight Freeney sped past the tackle and slammed Ben Roethlisberger. I know the Steelers went to the Super Bowl last year and won another one with a terrible line, but shouldn't it be a little better by now?

As always, the home team is in caps.

Detroit (+2.5) over DALLAS: Why is Dallas favored after not scoring a touchdown last week and needing a coaching blunder and overtime to win in Week 2?

New Orleans (-7) over JACKSONVILLE: Do I get bonus points for predicting before Week 2 that Blaine Gabbert would be starting by Week 3?

San Francisco (+9.5) over PHILADELPHIA: Did you know that the 49ers haven't allowed a 100-yard rusher in about two years?

Washington (-3) over ST. LOUIS: Four picks in and I have the home team losing in all of them. Can't be good.

Tennessee (PK) over CLEVELAND: Make it five!

Buffalo (-3) over CINCINATTI: This is beginning to scare me. In all fairness, I could have just switched up the order and then it wouldn't look so strange with all the home teams losing.

Minnesota (-3) over KANSAS CITY: The Vikings are going to hold a lead at some point during this season. Why not tomorrow?

CHICAGO (-6.5) over Carolina: The Bears can't block anyone, but they still have a dangerous defense.

Pittsburgh (+3.5) over HOUSTON: I wish I had an awesome research team to tell me if Houston has ever been favored against the Steelers before. Oh well, I'm just going to guess they haven't and choke under the pressure.

Atlanta (-4.5) over SEATTLE: So all offseason the Falcons were played up, then on some ESPN show this week analysts were debating whether they are a sleeper in he NFC. How is it possible to be a favorite in the NFC to sleeper in three weeks?

New York Giants (-1) over ARIZONA: The Cardinals just lost to Seattle, while the Giants are coming off an impressive win against the Eagles. Who is making these lines? Of course, I'll still go 8-8 at best.

SAN DIEGO (-7) over Miami: Tony Sparano needs to go for his own well-being.

Denver (+12.5) over GREEN BAY: Green Bay hasn't been that dominant yet.

OAKLAND (+6) over New England: Just because I wanted to take the Bills last week and wussed out.

New York Jets (+4) over BALTIMORE: The Jets are a proud bunch of ego maniacs that need to redeem themselves after last week.

Indianapolis (+10) over TAMPA BAY: I believe in Curtis Painter! Not really, but Tampa doesn't blow teams out.

Chicago - Glory of Love

Looking back at some bold Pirates predictions...

2011-09-29T20:15:00.000-04:00

By Jeff

Back in April I made some predictions for the Pittsburgh Pirates and their players for the 2011. Let's just say my prognosticating skills are not limited to NFL games. What I said is in bold. What really happened isn't. Ouch.

James McDonald wins 14 games and has an ERA below 3.50 - McDonald had some control issues. OK, he had a lot of control issues and only made it past the 6th inning about two times all season. He finished with nine wins and a 4.21 ERA.
Pedro Alvarez hits 30 home runs and strikes out 180 times - Pedro had all of four homers, which was three less than Brandon Wood. And he didn't even strike out 180 times!
Andrew McCutchen hits 20 bombs and steals 30 bases - Cutch hit 23 dingers, but only swiped 23 bags
Jose Tabata bats .315 with 10+ homers and 30 steals - Tabata had a terrible two months, hit .266, mashed four home runs and stole 16 bases. Yeah... I did not do well on this one.
Lyle Overbay will hit .275 - Ummm. He batted .226 and was released. Wooo!
Ross Ohlendorf will win nine games and have a sub 4.00 ERA
Ryan Doumit will... nevermind. There is nothing positive to say about him - He batted .303, so there was something positive to his season. He still got hurt and missed more than half the season, so I'm calling this one a push.
Joel Hanrahan will save 35 games - He had 40. This is a win for me!
The team will finish with 71 wins - Almost nailed it. They had 72. What's sadder, that this is an improvement on last season by 15 games, or that it was a bold prediction to say they'd only get 71 wins.

Queen - Gimme the Prize

Red Sox demise was awesome

2011-09-29T19:37:00.000-04:00

By Jeff

The only thing that makes me happier than teams I like winning championships is Boston area teams losing.

I was screaming at the television when the New York Giants spoiled the New England Patriots' perfect season. I jumped for joy when Ron Artest drained the 3-pointer that clinched the Boston Celtics' loss in the NBA Finals a few years back.

Now I have the Red Sox collapse of 2011.

Seriously, they were nine games up in the Wild Card at the beginning of September. Even the New York Mets were shaking their heads at the embarrassment that was the Boston choke job. It was beautiful.

Hearing Boston fans bitch about the New York Yankees tanking the last game is like sweet music the the rest of the nation's ears.

This was the team that was the hands down favorite to win the World Series. The majority of analysts at least had them in the big game. Their slow start was followed by a great three months of baseball where all you heard was how good they were and how the Yankees didn't have the pitching to keep up.

Then came the skid of September. It was glorious watching the crawler on ESPN tell me almost every night that the Red Sox had lost again. It was great to hear ther fans make excuse after excuse. Yes, a lot of players were hurt this year, but I thought almost $200 million bought you some depth? Apparently not.

The loss made me so happy, I could even stand to read Bill Simmons' column on Grantland today. You know, the one where he said fans should have seen this coming and how hard it was to watch the Red Sox this year? Really? It's hard to watch a team in playoff contention all season? Try following a team that is out by July when they are having a good year. OK, maybe his attitude in the column still got under my skin a little bit.

The Atlanta Braves had a pretty terrible collapse too. But at least they can say someone did worse.

Dropkick Murphys - The Gauntlet

Why the hate on jerseys?

2011-09-25T21:29:00.000-04:00

By Jeff

Rick Reilly recently wrote this column ripping on men who wear sports jerseys. It's not the first column of its kind and it won't be the last one. But that doesn't mean I agree with Reilly and others like him who hate jersey owners everywhere.

The most common thing I hear critics of jersey-wearing fans is that it's disturbing for grown men to wear shirts with another man's name on them. Really? Sounds a bit homophobic to me. I own Hine Ward, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kevin Stevens jerseys. Other than Stevens, these are my favorite players on my favorite teams. It's how I choose to display my support of the team. There is nothing disturbing about me, or anyone else, wearing another man's name on our backs.

Another common insult to us jersey wearers is that we think we're a part of the team. That's stupid. I can't hockey stop or block a strong safety. I could never make the Pens or Steelers. And 99.9 percent of the fans at sporting events never entertain the thought that they are a part of the team. They wear the jersey to support the team. Are you seeing a recurring theme here?

Reilly also inferred that those of us who wear jerseys think we dream of being confused for the player on our back. He got me there. When I go out in my Ward jersey, I honestly think people will think I'm a professional football player who happens to be of African and Asian decent. I've actually been told I look like Ward when I shave my head, wear huge diamond earrings and get really tan. I can't confirm or deny if the autograph I gave out was later sold on E-Bay.

Usually I think Reilly makes solid points in his columns, but he missed here. People express their fandom differently. If Reilly wants to just wear a hat to support his teams, I won't give him crap. He can even wear it backward. I only ask that he leave alone those of us who enjoy wearing jerseys.

Cake - Going The Distance

Week 3 Picks: Rebound week?

2011-09-24T10:53:00.000-04:00

By Jeff

Can I have a redo on Week 2? Not only did I miss on nine games, but I missed badly on about six of them. It's weeks like these that make me question why I put picks up on the Internet. Why embarrass myself further? But then I think, why not? C'mon, woo!

Let's start with the Miss of the Week. Here is what I said about the Kansas City - Detroit game. "That's too many points (8) for me to give Detroit in Week 2. They had a great win in Week 1, but I'm not sure they can do it again." Well, Detroit won by 45 points. They covered the spread almost six times over. At least I'll have a hard time missing a pick by that much again this season.

Well, let's stop living in the past and move on to Week 3. As always, the home teams are in caps.

San Francisco (+2.5) over CINCINNATI - Andy Dalton certainly looks like the real deal, and it's not like the 49ers have a great defense. But I'm thinking thisone stays close and Frank Gore has his first big game of the season.

New England (-7) over BUFFALO - The Bills gave up 35 points to the Oakland Raiders and 10 to the Kansas City Chiefs. I think the 10 to the Chiefs is more embarrassing than the 35 to the Raiders. Tom Brady is going to have a lot of fun.

NEW ORLEANS (-4) over Houston - Of the 2-0 teams, the Texans have the least impressive wins. They crushed a Peyton Manning-less Indianapolis Colts that then got smoked by the Cleveland Browns, and they beat the Miami Dolphins, who haven't won a home game in quite some time. The Texans have yet to face a productive offense, and the Saints have one of the best.

New York Giants (+8.5) over PHILADELPHIA - I get that the Giants have a depleted defense, but they still get to the quarterback. All it takes is one hit to Michael Vick's head and the Eagles are in trouble. And he is going to get hit. That offensive line stinks. I don't care what Ron Jaworski says on his Eagles radio show every week. I actually try my best to never listen to any Jaws says.

CLEVELAND (-2.5) over Miami - Games like these shouldn't count against me. There is nothing exciting about this one. Tell me an interesting storyline or something to watch for in this game. Take your time. It's not easy.

TENNESSEE (-7) over Denver - Matt Hasselbeck is alive! Alive!

Detroit (-3) over MINNESOTA - I've learned my lesson. Never will I doubt the Lions again if they are playing a crappy opponent.

CAROLINA (-3) over Jacksonville - Jack Del Rio is definitely trying to sabotage this team. He was only going to keep his job if they made the playoffs, so he cut his starter the week before the season began. Then in Week 2, Luke McCown had one of the worst performances by a quarterback I can remember. Yeah, I'm thinking Jack saw the writing on the wall and is trying to see how much damage he can do before he's shown the door.

SAN DIEGO (-14.5) over Kansas City - The Chiefs might not have 20 points combined after three weeks.

OAKLAND (+3) over New York Jets - No logic here. I was just sick of picking the favorites.

Baltimore (-4) over ST. LOUIS - The Rams are lucky there are teams like the Chiefs and the Jags, or else everyone would be talking about how this is the worst offense in the NFL.

Atlanta (+1.5) over TAMPA BAY - Do you believe in the theory that the Falcons will have a hard time getting up for a big divisional game after such an emotional win last week? Or do you believe in the theory that it was a stepping stone for the team and proved to them they can overcome the odds? I'm going with theory 2.

Arizona (-3.5) over SEATTLE - How did I forget to include Seattle when I was talking about the worst offenses in football? My apologies.

Green Bay (-4) over CHICAGO - Maybe I've been too hard on Jay Cutler. If my offensive line was routinely letting me get destroyed by 300-pound men, I'd probably walk around with a pouty face all day too.

Pittsburgh (-10.5) over INDIANAPOLIS - Kerry Collins is probably wishing he stayed retired at this point.

Washington (+5) over DALLAS - Maybe Grossman is more than who we thought he was. Granted, most people never thought much of anything of him, so that's not saying all that much.

Weezer - Simple Pages

NCAA follows money

2011-09-20T20:07:00.000-04:00

By Jeff

Can we all agree to break into hysterical laughter when college officials and administrators try and tell us they are doing something because they have the well-being of student athletes in mind?

Please?

After all the talk of super conferences beginning to form last year, and only one major school (Nebraska) making a major change, I was hoping this crap was over. Then this past week comes along and the Big 12 is in big trouble while the Big East will definitely be losing Pitt and Syracuse to the ACC.

Why all the shuffling? Schools see a lot of money to be made in other conferences and want their share. It's as simple as that. You can't tell me the athletes on the Pitt football team will have a better college experience because the team will be in the ACC and not the Big East. Really, it's going to increase travel time, which is more time out of the classroom. So how exactly can any school official say this move, and others like it, have anything to do with their institution's athletes?

This is all about money. And for all the schools involved with the move and the soon-to-be super conferences, it's an excellent business move. These schools are going to see more money come through their doors thanks to bigger television contracts. Money that will trickle down to the athletes that make these contracts possible, right?

Well, last I read, there was some talk to pay college athletes some kind of stipend. But I doubt it's near the money they deserve or that it will actually go through. The NCAA suspends players for talking to agents, selling jerseys or really making money in any way for their athletic talents while they are at school.

So next time you hear a school president or athletic director emphasize their concern for "student athletes" laugh at them. If they look confused, slap them.

Queen - Fat-Bottomed Girls

Week 2 NFL picks

2011-09-17T14:22:00.000-04:00

By Jeff

It's a good thing I didn't post my picks last week. They were bad! And I'd like to find people who did well with them. It was a crazy week. The Steelers got crushed, the Buffalo Bills crushed the Kansas City Chiefs, Jay Cutler outplayed Matt Ryan, Tony Romo choked a game away (OK, that one was predictable.) and there were actually highlights of Ted Ginn Jr.

This week, I still don't know what's going on. It could be ugly, but that's no excuse not to put the picks out there and see how awesome or terrible I am. The home teams are in Caps.

Chicago (+6.5) over NEW ORLEANS: The Bears don't have the offense that the Green Bay Packers do. I'm pretty sure nobody in the NFL does, and that includes New England. But the Saints' defense was terrible last Thursday. The Bears will be able to keep this close because that Saints D won't make stops.

Kansas City (+8) over DETROIT: That's too many point or me to give Detroit in Week 2. They had a great win in Week 1, but I'm not sure they can do it again.

NEW YORK JETS (-9) over Jacksonville: Luke McCown versus one of the bets defenses in the league. Blaine Gabbert could be starting in Week 3 for the Jags.

Oakland (+3) over BUFFALO: One of these teams is going to start 0-2. Scary.

WASHINGTON (-3.5) over Arizona: The Arizona secondary is terrble. Even Rex Grossman is going to be able to pick them apart. I can't believe I just typed that last sentence. Any chance we can get Dennis Green to coach the Cardinals again for this one for old time's sake? Please?

Baltimore (-6) over TENNESSEE: Matt Hasselbeck is going to be killed. Glad I just picked him up in a fantasy league. Balls.

PITTSBURGH (-14) over Seattle: The Steelers are going to take all their frustrations from last week's game, and the proceeding week's media coverage asking if they are too old, on Tavaris Jackson and the Seahawks. Seattle will be lucky to get 150 yards of total offense.

Green Bay (-10) over CAROLINA: Let's see what happens when Cam Newton faces a secondary with talent and speed.

Tampa Bay (+3) over MINNESOTA: Maybe the most confusing line of the week. The Vikings' offense was atrocious last week against the Chargers. It pains me to say it, but Donovan McNabb could be done as a viable starting quarterback in the NFL.

INDIANAPLOIS (+2) over Cleveland: The Browns lost to the Bengals. I can't pick them.

Dallas (-3) over SAN FRANCISCO: Unless Romo plays special teams for the Cowboys, Dallas won't have any problems winning this game.

Houston (-3) over MIAMI: What are the chances Chad Henne has two solid weeks in a row?

San Diego (+7) over NEW ENGLAND: Chad Henne put up big numbers against the tiny Pats secondary. As good as Tom Brady was, the Dolphins could have won this game if they made clutch plays. Phillip Rivers and his receivers are going to have monster days.

DENVER (-3.5) over Cincinnati: Who cares?

Philadelphia (-2.5) over ATLANTA: Teams should be absolutely terrified to play the Eagles on turf. When their offense is on the field, they probably have the fastest four players on the field. It doesn't matter that the offensive line blows because there are so many options for Michael Vick. By the way, Philly fans over here have been saying all week how well they thought the offensive line played last week. They must have watched a different game than I did. The game I saw featured an offensive line that was consistently beat and then bailed out by Vick's legs. There is no way he survives 16 games with the line playing the way it is.

NEW YORK GIANTS (-6) over St. Louis: I'm going to be honest, I probably won't even bother watching this game. It just won't be fun.

The Who - Can't Explain

How Phillies and Pirates fans differ

2011-09-14T19:22:00.000-04:00

By Jeff

I recently moved from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia. It's not that I love Philly, but my fiancee is here so I am here.

The first thing I've noticed is how excited these people out here are for Phillies games, for the most part. Everyone talks about them and loves them. It's so strange for a Pirates fan to hear.

When people in Pittsburgh talk about the Pirates it's usually about how terrible ownership is, how long it will be until the team trades Andrew McCutchen and how pretty PNC Park is. Not all fans are like that. You get guys like blog contributors Greg and Mike, who love the Pirates and follow them closely, win or lose. It's sad, but these men are rare.

Phillies fans talk about the playoffs and debate who their fourth starter in the postseason should be (They think I'm stupid for thinking it should be Vance Worley). They discuss things like which relievers do you leave off the postseason roster. And there is just genuine excitement for most games. The Pirates had that for about a month this season, and it was the first month in years.

Now there is one attitude I heard on Philly radio this week that blew my mind. The hosts of a sports talk show and some of the callers were saying they have stopped watching the Phillies this year because winning has become so routine.

Seriously?

Is that not one of the more ridiculous things you've heard in the sports world? Who says that they stop watching their team in the regular season because it's pretty clear the team will win the game? What spoiled jackasses.

I lost a lot of respect for these so-called Phillies fans. Clearly not all Phillies fans are like this. My future father-in-law always watches the Phillies and celebrates every win, no matter how routine or expected it is. I'm pretty sure blog contributor R.J. cried when the Phillies won it all in 2008. But as a Pirates fan who can only remember watching one playoff game (live) in the team's history, it's very annoying to hear other baseball fans who don't bother watching their team because they expect their team to win every night.

It's not like the Phillies have been really good for a really long time. This is the most losing team in MLB history. Prior to 2007 the Phillies hadn't won their division since 1993. Fans of this team are so lucky to have such a great team that could be among the all-time greatests because of their rotation.

If I loved this team like some of these people claim to, I wouldn't miss a game unless I absolutely couldn't find a way to get in front of a tv.

Weezer - The Greatest Man That Ever Lived

Steelers fans shouldn't panic

2011-09-14T19:00:00.000-04:00

By Jeff

Watching the Pittsburgh Steelers get crushed by the Baltimore Ravens is one of the worst things Steelers fans can witness. Last Sunday was no different. The 35-7 thrashing by the Ravens was painful to watch. Very painful.

But I'm here to tell Steelers fans it's OK.

The team will not turn the ball over seven times a game again this season. They probably won't have four in another game this year.

The defense will pressure and get to quarterbacks.

Ben Roethlisberger will make better decisions. He'll still underthrow his receivers, but that's kinda what he does.

Willie Colon will be missed, but this team got to the Super Bowl without him last year. They will sruvive.

The team won't fall so far behind that they have to abandon the run for the majority of the second half.

Last Sunday's game sucked, but it will be the exception and not the rule to this season.

Phantom Planet - The Panic

Athletes being stupid: Bud Selig and MLB

2011-09-14T18:53:00.000-04:00

By Jeff

OK, this is not a case of an athlete being stupid, but an entire league and its commissioner.

The New York Mets were playing at home Sunday, 10 years to the day that 9/11 occurred. MLB planned to honor those brave men and women killed in the terrorists attacks of that day, and all of the families affected by the tragedy. All teams were to wear hats with the American flag on them.

It was a nice and subtle tribute to victims, but the Mets wanted to do more. And who can blame them? The World Trade Center attack was in their back yard. These players wanted to show more support for victims by wearing NYPD and NYFD hats during the game for one day. MLB said no.

The team didn't want to wear them the rest of the season. They just wanted to do it Sunday. What possible harm could come from it? MLB VP of baseball operations Joe Torre came out and said it was a unanimity issue.

I understand the importance of branding, but this was a terrible decision and the explanation was even worse. The Mets play in New York. The game was in New York. There was a lot more emotion there than in any other city in the world that day. Let the team show their support of their city's public servants who sacrificed their lives for strangers.

Mets pitcher R.A. Dickey tweeted that the Mets planned on rebelling against the memo telling them wearing the NYPD/NYFD hats was forbidden during the game, but the hats disappeared when game-time arrived. Mets players also said the memo stated fines would be handed down to those who wore the hats. MLB has since come out and denied both of these allegations.

I'm not sure why players would lie about that, so I'm going to believe them until the memo is released. And if you think about it, don't you think MLB would release the memo to the public to show that the players were exaggerating the contents of the memo? It would save them a huge headache, but I don't see that ever happening.

On top of everything else, reports have come out that commissioner Bud Selig was "irate" that the Mets went public with MLB's order to not wear the hats. Apparently he thought it embarrassed baseball and that the Mets threw MLB "under the bus".

Maybe Selig should have thought about the consequences of such a stupid rule. Of course the Mets are going to go public with this. Why wouldn't they? The league deserves to be thrown under the bus for making such a bone-headed decision. What a d-bag.

The Eagles - New York Minute

Questions surround Crosby's return

2011-09-08T21:05:00.000-04:00

By Jeff

Sidney Crosby is still getting headaches and concussion symptoms. He can't participate in full contact drills.

I'm a little scared and have nothing else to say on the matter. It's depressing. The guy was setting the league on fire and then suffered one or two concussions in a week. Now we have no idea when he will be back.

Balls.

Queen - Radio Ga-Ga

NFL predictions: AFC Rankings

2011-09-05T20:10:00.000-04:00

By Jeff

The preseason is done. Finally NFL football games that mean something. After months of uncertainty about the season, and another month of analysts reaching for stories regarding the preseason that were not stories, we have real NFL football! Wooooo!

It's going to be a fun season. It always is. So who's going to be the best and the worst? Well, those answers are pretty obvious. The ones inbetween might be harder to predict.

16. Buffalo Bills - This team is terrible. Steve Johnson and Fred Jackson are pretty good, but that's pretty much it. Ryan Fitzpatrick had some good weeks last season, but then stunk down the stretch and C.J. Spiller had a very disappointing rookie campaign and the offensive line has nothing but a bunch of cast offs that couldn't even be the 8th men on other teams' lines. Chan Gailey will be fired.

15. Cincinnati Bengals - There are few things in sports that make me happier than the Bengals and their lack of success: the New England Patriots haven't won a playoff game since that Super Bowl loss to the New York Giants, the Philadelphia Flyers and Washington Capitals being unable to take the next step and the pain it causes their fans, and when the New York Yankees or Boston Red Sox miss out on the playoffs. The Bengals are going to suck again this season. A 3-13 season would be a surprise.

14. Cleveland Browns - Can Colt McCoy throw the ball farther than 30 yards?

13. Denver Broncos - There is so much that needs to be done to undo what Josh McDaniels did to this franchise. They have cut second-round draft picks and Tim Tebow is not the future. This team is gonna struggle for at least another year.

12. Oakland Raiders - Darren McFadden was great last year. He had been mediocre every year prior to that. I'm not sure he can hold up for the season. Other than McFadden's potential, what does this team have going for them? They lost their best defensive player and they are starting a quarterback who has never taken the next step in Jason Campbell. He was benched for Bruce Gradkowski last year at times.

11. Miami Dolphins - Rememeber last year when people were excited about what Chad Henne was going to do for the Dolphins? It might be hard because Henne was terrible last season and these people seem to have completely forgotten how much they praised him. Also, Reggie Bush is not the answer.

10. Jacksonville Jaguars - A long time ago the Jaguars were my second favorite team in the league. I loved Freddy Taylor, Mark Brunell (He used to scramble!) and Jimmy Smith. Then in their second season of existence they upset the Denver Broncos in the playoffs and I liked them ever since. Then all of those guys went away and the team didn't replace them with similarly loved players. Well, except for Maurice Jones-Drew. He is cool and I respect him. The rest of the team is meh and does nothing for me. It will also do nothing exciting this year. This will be Jack Del Rio's last year as coach. I may have said that two or three times before, but this time I mean it.

9. Kansas City Chiefs - No reason for this ranking, I just think last year was a fluke.

8. Tennessee Titans - OK, this team should be around No. 11 or 12, but there is always a team in each league that is surprising and makes more waves than you expect. The Titans are that team this year, at least if Jake Locker takes over by Week 6.

7. Baltimore Ravens - I have two Ravens on one of a fantasy roster, yet I don't think this team makes the playoffs. Why? Once again, not a lot of valid reasons here. I want to say the team won't cut it on defense. But they kind of prove me wrong every time I think they're done.

6. Indianapolis Colts - They'll be up to three if Peyton doesn't miss significant time. But no one really knows when he will be back. So I'm saying they sneak into the playoffs with Peyton making a triumphant return and winning six straight to finish the season.

5. Houston Texans - Andre Johnson deserves to make the playoffs. It made me so happy to see him punch Cortland Finnegan in the head last year. But that last part is beside the point. The point is Johnson is an elite talent that deserves better and I think he is going to push his team over the top this year. The defense might not suck, which will help as well.

4. New England Patriots - They're good, but they haven't won the most important game of their season since February of 2005. I'm sorry, but Albert Haynesworth is not the answer on defense and Chad Ochocinco is not the second coming of the third coming of Randy Moss. But they still have Tom Brady. He is the best pure passer in the league. If he has time to throw the ball, he is practically unstoppable. I can't tell you how much I hate saying this and praising him, but he's that good and can carry a blah team to 11-5 or 12-4. Damn him.

3. San Diego Chargers - No, Phillip Rivers won't win a Super Bowl. The football Gods or God do not approve of his cocky attitude, especially considering he hasn't even won an AFC Championship. But the AFC West is weak and they will go 6-0 in the division. Then they will lose in the playoffs.

2. New York Jets - I don't really believe this. Just seems like the popular thing to do.

1. Pittsburgh Steelers - Unlike the past two times the Steelers were coming off a Super Bowl appearance, the Steelers have something to prove this season. They need to show that their defense really is something to be feared, not the shell Aaron Rodgers picked apart in the Super Bowl. Ben Roethlisberger needs to prove that he is still the guy who ca take a team down the length of the field in the final two minutes when they need him. Not the guy who gained one first down in a similar situation in the Super Bowl. This team is mostly made up of the same guys who got them to a Super Bowl last year and felt the disappointment of losing a winnable game. Oh, I'm also a huge homer and will always put the Steelers at No. 1 in one of these rankings.

The Doobie Brothers - Listen to the Music

Pirates season hits new low

2011-09-02T12:20:00.001-04:00

By Jeff

A month and a half ago the city of Pittsburgh was going crazy for the Pirates. The team was in first place in the NL Central in July. It was a new feeling to an entire generation of fans. Friend of the blog Dwayne was caught up in the joy of winning baseball in Pittsburgh.

Well, that excitement is long gone. The team has gone on a metoric nose dive of historic proportions. Since July 25, the team is 9-28 and has fallen to 62-75 for the year. The pitching has come back to earth and the hitting still sucks. That actually might be an understatement considering they are 25th in runs, 26th in batting average, 26th in on-base percentage and 26th in slugging percentage.

What is even more disappointing is players that were expected to take a step forward have not. Jose Tabata has done nothing special and spent extended time on the DL, Neil Walker strikes out too much and has cooled off significantly from a hot start to the season and Pedro Alvarez looks like Chris Stynes in the batter's box. Yes, I just compared Alvarez to Stynes, which is actually a fair comparison if you look at Alvarez's 2011 season and Stynes' 2004 season with the Buccos.

So this season could not have gone much worse, right? Absolutely wrong. Don't forget this is the Buccos we're talking about.

The new low point of the season came yesterday when the offense was shut down by none other than Dana Eveland. The Pirates traded for the same Eveland last year and got all f three appearances out of him, resulting in an impressively bad 8.38 ERA. He was designated for assignment shortly afer joining the team. But Eveland was back in the majors with the Los Angeles Dodgers yesterday and threw a gem. His line: 8 IP, 6 hits, 1 ER, 3 K, 0 BB and 1 W.

I try to be an optimist when it comes to the Pirates and to censor my language on this blog, but WHAT THE FUCK!? This is after Ryan Vogelsong came back from Japan and dominated the Pirates lineup. What next, Bryan Bullington returning to PNC Park and no-hitting the Bucs? Would you really be that surprised?

The Pixies - Dig for Fire

The most hyped No. 3 QB ever

2011-09-01T12:06:00.000-04:00

By Jeff

I mentioned this in a random thoughts post, but the topic won't go away and I don't get it.

Why is Tim Tebow getting so much hype? He is the No. 3 quarterback on a bad team. Has there been a No. 3 quarterback in league history that has received so much attention? I'm pretty sure the answer is no.

I know people like to mention the last two games of 2010 where he threw three touchdowns, but one of those games was against one of the worst defenses in the league in Houston. The other was against San Diego, which held him to a completion percentage of 44.4 percent. Not exactly mind blowing.

Reports out of Denver Broncos training camp is that he's actually been the fourth best quarterback in camp. Fourth best! Yet he has received more air time than Josh Freeman, Sam Bradford and Colt McCoy. A second-year and two rookies who all had better seasons than Tebow. What am I missing.

I just heard Skip Bayliss saying for the third time that the Broncos would make the playoffs if Tebow was their starter. What the hell is he seeing? Apparently, Tebow's performance in the third preseason game made Bayliss wet. Tebow's line: 6-for-11 for 93 yards with no picks or touchdowns. He also had four rushes for 25 yards with a fumble recovered by his team. This was in a little less than a half of work against the Seattle Seahawks' backups. Orton threw for 236 yards and a touchdown in half against the starters.

How is this a discussion?

And for those people who say Tebow critics only root against him because of how he doesn't hide his religion, you're stupid. His football skills have nothing to do with his religion. He just is not a good pro quarterback right now. And I think this because he has ugly mechanics and seems to panic in the pocket. I don't care if he is Christian and lets the world know. Good for him. No one should be ashamed of what they believe in terms of faith.

But this idea that he is discrimated against because he is Christian is a joke. I think this belief is in line with the recent claims (Mostly by Fox News and its correspondents) that Christians are under attack in America. They're not. Tebow is criticized because he is not better than Kyle Orton or Brady Quinn. Not because of what he believes.

Belinda Carlisle - Heaven is a Place on Earth

Foster tweets MRI, should we care?

2011-09-01T11:40:00.000-04:00

By Jeff

Disclaimer: I have drafted Arian Foster first overall in two fantasy leagues, so I obviously want to see him play.

Now that we got that out of the way, let's talk about Foster tweeting the actual MRI image of his hamstring to Twitter.

There are many out there who think this was a very stupid thing to do. Herm Edwards and Skip Bayliss are two people I've heard recently ripping Foster for posting the MRI. Why? Because they think it gives other teams information about Foster that they will use to their advantage.

This is why hockey teams never diclose specific injuries and just tell the world that their players have upper or lower body injuries. They don't want other teams to target their players' injured body parts.

But this is a different case. Everyone who pays attention to the NFL or fantasy football knew that Arian Foster reaggravated a hamstring injury in Week 3 of the preseason. It was discussed on "Sportscenter", "First Take", "Mike & Mike", "Inside the NFL", and probably the every other ESPN show.

Clearly, it was made very clear by multiple people that Foster hurt his hamstring. If an opposing NFL didn't know, then they are probably the Browns, Bengals, Bills or Raiders, as it's obvious these teams don't care about football or winning games anymore. Developing strategies to win games would be detrimental to their goal of making a ton of money with losing teams.

So was there really anything in that MRI that would tell teams anything they didn't already know. Maybe now they have a better idea of the severity, but are there multiple ways to assault a hamstring?

As I'm writing this I guess it could be an issue as the organization can list Foster as questionable each week, and their opponents will have to plan for him, even if he won't play. Now they can expect him not to play and that ploy doesn't work.

But that's not what Edwards and Bayliss were saying! They were focusing on how other players now knew to target Foster's hamstring, which they should have already known.

Now, there is the whole debate as to the severiy of the injury. ESPN's medical correspondent said it was a tear that would keep Foster out 3-4 weeks. Foster replied on Twitter saying he wouldn't post a serious injury. I tend to believe the doctor before the athlete here. But then again, if the doctor's name isn't Freddie Fu, I have no idea if he has solid credentials.

I Googled Dr. Michael Kaplan of ESPN and he received some kind of Connecticut Top Docs award from 2003-2006 in CT Magazine. I don't know what that means. He also got a best video award for an ACL reconstruction. That doesn't tell me enough. Did it have superb editing? Did it have fun special effects? Best video tells me nothing. It does make me want to bust in on an OR with a video camera and try to win a best video for liver transplant award, but I don't have the clearance. Mike, help me out here.

With that being said, I'd still trust the doctor as opposed to Foster when it comes to medicine knowledge.

ZZ Top - Legs

Vick inks second $100M deal

2011-08-31T16:33:00.000-04:00

By Jeff

For the second time in his career, Michael Vick has signed a contract that could pay him up to $100 million. His most recent one was givn to him by the Philadelphia Eagles. The is for 6 years and guarantees Vick $40 million.

As sweet as that sounds, that $40 million will not cover Vick's debts to creditors. How much would that suck? You just sign a contract that guarantees you more money than the vast majority of humans will never see, and you have to pay it to other people.

But I digress.

The question one must ask after seeing this deal is whether Vick is worth it? There is no questioning how exciting the man is and how diffifcult it is for defenses to try and create a gameplan for him, but he's never thrown for more than 21 touchdowns in a season. He's also only topped 3,000 yards passing (3,018 in 2010) once in his career.

You can't mention Vick without mentioning what a good runner he is. Last year he topped 600 rushing yards and nine touchdowns. That was last year though. Have you seen the Eagles' line so far? Vick has been under constant pressure. He could die this year. He looked to have worn down by the end of last year's dream season and I'm concerned about him playing at a high level all year and into the playoffs.

Vick has a career completion percentage of 55.3, not exactly mind blowing. Last season he had a career high with 62.6, but can he repeat that?

This contract makes you look back at all the other quarterback contracts that are $100 million or more, and in hindsight, some of them are really terrible.

Carson Palmer: The now-retired Cincinnati Bengal signed a 6-year extension in 2005 that upped his contract to 9 years, $118.75 million. The Bengals never won a playoff game with Palmer behind the helm. Hell, they only had one winning record after he signed the deal.
Donovan McNabb: This one made sense. McNabb signed a 7-year, $115 million contract after the 2001 season. He then led the team to several playoff appearances, including a few NFC Championships and a Super Bowl, but never won the big game.
Daunte Culpepper: In 2003, Culpepper cashed in a 10-year, $102 million deal. This was after a 7-7 season where he threw 25 touchdowns. But in 2004 he was incredible with 39 TD passes and more than 4,700 yards. Then he went to suck really fast. He blew out his knee the next season and never started more than seven games in a season.
Brett Favre: Possibly the most annoying player in the past 5 years signed a 10-year, $101 million deal in 2001. Inappropriate text messages aside, this was a pretty good deal. From 2002-2008 (when he retired the first time), Favre had five winning seasons, one losing season and one 8-8 season. He mad the playoffs four times and almost had a miracle final season in Green Bay.
Drew Bledsoe: The New England Patriots gave Bledsoe a monster deal in 2011 worth $103 million for 10 years. Bledsoe responded by going 0-2 to start the 2001 season before he got hurt and Tom Brady took the reigns. Bledsoe was then traded to Buffalo and never made the playoffs again. Totally worth it, right?
Michael Vick: This deal was with the Atlanta Falcons and was worth a whopping $130 million for 10 years. Signed late in the 2004 season, this was the largest deal in NFL history and led us all to believe Vick would be a Falcon for life. Well, we know the rest of the story. Vick had mediocre seasons in 2005 and 2006, and then he was arrested, thrown in jail, released and put in a ton of debt.
Ben Roethlisberger: Big Ben put the Pitsburgh Steelers in a tough spot last offseason, but you can't say he hasn't lived up to the 8-year, $102 million deal he signed prior to the 2008 season. Since the deal, Roethlisberger led the Steelers to one Super Bowl win and another appearance. In the win, he led the team down the field in the final moments to claim victory. You'll notice he is the only man on this list with a Super Bowl win.

Dire Straits - Money for Nothing

Pirates spending too much?

2011-08-24T11:29:00.000-04:00

By Jeff

OK, I'm a little late with this one, but it is certainly a story that would confuse any Pittsburgh Pirates fans.

Jon Heyman wrote a story last week for SI that said MLB commissioner Bud Selig is not happy with the amounts of money some teams are spending on draft picks. He singled out the Pirates and Washington Nationals for handing out bonuses of $17 million and $15 million, respectively. Apparently, Selig wants to put a cap on how much you can pay draft picks.

That's right. Selig is upset because the Pirates are spending too much money. Tell that to any Pirates fan and you'll be laughed at and called stupid by people who think Charlie Batch should be the starting quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Or called a jagoff by someone who thought the Pirates could have traded Matt Diaz, Lyle Overbay and Ronny Cedeno to the New York Mets for Jose Reyes.

The Pirates consistently have one of the lowest payrolls in baseball. Local and national media alike tear the team to pieces because they never pay big money for free agents, or they trade away their top players rather than give them big pay days.

So hearing someone say the Pirates are spending too much money is a bit odd. I understand that Selig doesn't want unproven players getting huge deals, but with the way baseball works right now, this is how teams like the Pirates and Nationals have to operate if they want to build winning teams. They have to build through the draft, and they have to pay a lot of money to ensure these players sign.

By putting a cap on the draft, MLB would be putting small market teams at an even greater disadvantage than they already are with an uncapped league. Heyman makes a great point at the end of the article. Small market teams have to overpay for everything. From mediocre to star players, the smaller markets have to throw more money at players to entice them to play there. These contracts for good major league players are often greater than an entire draft class. I think it's much worse for a team like Minnesota Twins to wildly overpay Joe Mauer than for the Pirates or Nationals to overpay draft picks, considering the Twins are committing almost $200 million to Mauer and the Pirates and Nationals aren't spending $20 million on draft picks.

The Mauer, Jayson Werth, Vernon Wells, Barry Zito contracts are what Selig should be pissed about. All these guys are making way more than they should, which then drives the price up for everyone. And what is the cause of the these huge deals? The fact there is no salary cap in baseball. Every mid or small market team fears that they will lose their star players to the New York Yankees or Boston Red Sox because they teams spend around $200 million every year to buy winning teams.

So until there is a salary cap for the league, which I doubt the union will ever allow, there should not be a cap for the draft. It is the only place where the smaller teams have a chance at the most highly regarded talent.

Aerosmith - Hole in my Soul

Dan Shaugnessy is a tool

2011-08-24T11:07:00.000-04:00

By Jeff

Let's cut right to the point. Dan Shaugnessy's most recent Sports Illustrated column is ridiculous.

The whole thing is a giant set of lips that is puckering up for Bill Belichick's ass. The basic point is the New England Patriots have looked really good in the preseason, which obviously signifies Belichick is sick of losing and is ready to get back to winning football games in January. Yes, because the Patriots destroyed the Jacksonville Jaguars and Tampa Bay Bucs in the preseason, Shaugnessy is saying the Patriots are poised for a deep playoff run.

How does he justify this? With a quote from an anonymous NFC executive who said how the Pats are playing "is a complete departure from what we saw last season. They're not reacting, they're dictating."

NFL teams have dozens of executives. Gregg Easterbrook consistently makes a great point about how over-staffed NFL front offices are in his TMQ column. This anonymous NFC exec could be a random VP for the Detroit Lions for all we know. In all honesty, I'm pretty sure dictating the pace of the game with a quick strike passing game is what the Patriots have been doing since Randy Moss and Wes Welker came to New England. So I don't see that as a departure from last season, just more of the same.

OK, so the offense is pretty much the same, but that's not why teams should worry, Shaugnessy writes. Teams should fear the Patriots because of their new commitment to getting to the quarterback. Why? Well, because they gave the Bucs fits in the second preseason game. Let me reiterate, this is the preseason. You know, the time when teams don't watch film on each other to prepare and usually defenses go very vanilla so they don't give away anything they're going to do in the regular season. The fact the Pats were swarming and confusing the Bucs was probably because the Bucs didn't expect anything like that in the preseason.

Just look at the Pittsburgh Steelers. Last season they led the league with 48 sacks. That's three per game they averaged. They have one in two preseason contests. Not because they are going to struggle to pressure quarterbacks this year, but because defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau saves his crazy blitz schemes for the regular season, as most teams do.

Shaugnessy is at least aware that the Patriots dominated the regular season last year and choked in the playoffs. But this year he says Belichick is "back with a vengeance." As opposed to to the 2009 season, where the Pats dominated the regular season and got stomped in the playoffs. Why didn't Belichick come back with a vengeance then?

I wonder if Shaugnessy said the same thing about Steve Spurrier entering the 2003 season? After all, Spurrier never lost a preseason game.

The Patriots are going to be a Super Bowl contender, it pains me to say it, but it's true. In fact, as long as they have Tom Brady at quarterback, they are a Super Bowl contender. But the thought that the preseason is what validates that idea is a joke. And so is Shaugnessy.

Steve Miller Band - The Joker

Movie reviews: Captain America, Harry Potter, 30 Minutes or Less

2011-08-22T18:00:00.000-04:00

By Jeff

I don't know why, but I have a strange need to see as many comic book movies as possible. This would make sense if I read a lot of comic books, but I own all of two. So really, there is no reason for this obsession that usually leads me to see meh movies that I would avoid if they weren't based on comics.

With this in mind, I checked out "Captain America: The First Avenger". Aside from my need to see comic movies, I was drawn to "Captain" because Hugo Weaving was cast as the bad guy, Red Skull. Weaving is an awesome bad guy. He looks like a bad guy, he talks like a bad guy and he can act. He doesn't disappoint and has the best performance.

Chris Evans was a curious choice as the Captain, simply because he was already in the atrocious Fantastic Four movies. In Evans' defense, he was good as Johnny Storm, the writing was just terrible. Anyway, Evans made a good Captain. He didn't really have a lot of lines once he dawned the suit and persona, but he looked and played the part of a hero well.

Now the main problem I had with the film was the ray guns the bad guys had. Actually, I was OK with these weapons, it was the fact that they disintegrated people, yet a group of unarmed POWs escaped a prison camp loaded with bad guys toting these weapons.

The story was solid enough. Red Skull leads a terrorist cell within the Nazis called Hydra, they find an artifact that gives them the power to make ray guns and other weapons that Red Skull plans to use to take over the world. I actually giggled because they do a "Heil Hydra" salute that resembles the Nazi salute, but they use both arms. You know, because the hydra has multiple heads. I giggled because I imagined them and the Nazis then doing the chicken dance.

It wasn't "Iron Man" or "The Dark Knight", but "Captain America" gets a B.

Now I told readers last week that I've read the Harry Potter books after years of refusing to do so, now I've caught up with the movies. I'm just going to give you my thoughts on "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2".

Whenever you see movies based on popular books, you have to go in telling yourself it's OK if they don't follow the book to the letter. In fact, it's better if they don't. The movie can never be exactly like the book, so give the filmmaker a break and just enjoy it as a different entity.

The last Harry Potter movie was the best. Not because it had the most action, but because it didn't have to try and squeeze 700 pages of material into 140 minutes. The plot wasn't rushed and the movie was paced very well, unlike the majority of the other Potter movies. Remember the first two movies in the series and how they took what seemed like forever for anything to happen?

The acting was solid and it's really amazing to see how far Daniel Radcliffe and the other child actors have come during the course of the franchise. Alan Rickman was excellent as always, but just never seems to be on the screen enough.

The action sequences were a lot of fun, but not as satisfying as the duel between Dumbledore and Voldemort in "The Order of the Phoenix". It was really neat in that action scene to see how the wizards were using all of their surroundings like water from a fountain and glass from the windows. There was no utilizing the environment and any neat ideas during the duels in this movie, just lots of lights and "Stupefy!", but it was still entertaining.

The final battle of Hogwarts was grander in scale than the movie, but the movie still did a nice job of adding its own elements, like blowing up a bridge with a ton of werewolves on it.

Now I know I said you can't get mad at a movie for not incorporating everything from the book in the movie, but there are some plot details that were left out that should have been included here. The one that stands out to me is that the movie audience never learns how the death eaters knew when Harry was being moved from the Dursleys (This scene occurs in Part 1, but the reveal doesn't happen until near the end of the book and during the events of Part 2). They talk about having a traitor in their midst in Part 1, but then it is never discussed again. I also think it silly that you never see what happens to Wormtail in the movies. He gets stunned in Part 1 and is never seen again.

OK, so I explained how the movie lacked some vital scenes from the book, now I have one big issue with what the book left out and the movie could have improved on. There are two main characters that meet there demise during the battle for Hogwarts. Both in the book and in the movie, you never see how they meet their end. At least one of these characters deserved a more honorable end than just Harry seeing them dead on the ground. The movie could have added a quick scene showing these characters losing duels or sacrificing themselves or something. Instead the audience just sees them lined up with the rest of the bodies. Lame.

With that being said, the movie was still very entertaining and was a great end to the franchise. It gets a B+.

And I saved the worst for last. I had high hopes for "30 Minutes or Less". The cast was full of funny people and the previews had me laughing my ass off. Too bad those were almost the only funny parts of the movie.

Usually I enjoy Danny McBride, he wasn't funny at all in this film. His character just spouted out obscenities that weren't funny. Aziz Ansari was the only thing that went right in this movie. Jesse Eisenberg wasn't bad, but he was nothing special. That's really all I have to say. It was just really disappointing. C-.

Billy Idol - Rebel Yell

Goodell still sucks

2011-08-22T17:09:00.000-04:00

By Jeff

Roger Goodell is a joke that just never ends. A bad joke that your friend is telling and you listen to because you're either to nice to cut him short or there is no escape and you're forced to withstand it.

So what has Goodell done now? He's suspended Terrelle Pryor for the first five games of the season. Goodell's reasoning is Pryor made "decisions that undermine the integrity of the eligibility rules for the NFL draft." What does that even mean?

Apparently he "didn't cooperate with the NCAA and hiring of an agent in violation of NCAA rules. Notice that the organization he didn't had issues with was not the NFL. Since when has the NFL punished players for the way they acted in college? And how can a league suspend a player before he is even a part of the league?

This is just another instance of Goodell being a tool. I would say he is overstepping his bounds, but he has no bounds when it comes to the NFL. He basically makes decisions and there is nothing anyone else can do but complain.

This is why the Pittsburgh Steelers almost unanimously voted against the new CBA. They were pissed about how much power was staying with Goodell.

There are countless college players that leave college amid some sort of controversy or after they are kicked out for poor grades. To my knowledge, none of these players have been suspended before they were drafted by the NFL.

And to say Pryor was undermining the draft is a bit of a joke to me. He was planning on returning to Ohio State next season and didn't enter the draft. Then Jim Tressel said he was not coming back and Pryor faced a barrage of criticism from media and OSU fans. He changed his mind and thought it best to go pro. Isn't that the whole reason there is a supplemental draft? For players who were planning on returning to school but then don't because of other circumstances?

I have no love for Pryor or Ohio State. I worked in Jeannette, Pa., for 18 months and it is a very depressing place that I have no positive feelings toward. But Pryor should not have been suspended. It's just Goodell flexing his muscles to prove he can.

By the way, Pryor got drafted by the Oakland Raiders. Isn't that enough punishment?

Josh Ritter - Good Man

Pirates' downward spiral getting worse

2011-08-22T09:26:00.000-04:00

By Jeff

Pirates fans were so excited a month ago. The team was good! Well, kind of good. But the team is 5-14 in August and their hopes of a winning season, let alone a division crown, are pretty much spoiled.

The lineup has been a problem all season, but the starting rotation and bullpen were saving the team. Then the starting rotation went to hell. Then most of the bullpen went to hell, giving up late leads and not being able to bail out the struggling rotation. But the team still had closer Joel Hanrahan, if only they could get to him. Well, now he seems to be following the rest of the team, as he has given up runs in the three of his last four appearances and has a 4.82 ERA in the month of August.

You can't pinpoint one game that signaled the end of the Pirates unlikely run to the top of the NL Central. Some will point to the July 26 loss to the Atlanta Braves that went 19 innings and ended on a terrible call. That may have screwed up the bullpen, but it shouldn't have affected the rotation and the lineup.

And I'm not sure you can say it mentally drained the team. They went 19 innings with the second-best team (record wise) in the NL and lost on a bad call. I would think it would motivate the team. The Pittsburgh Steelers would use that game as a rallying cry, because the Steelers are best when they have the mentality that they are the underdogs and everyone is out to get them. I would hope the Pirates locker room would be similar after that tough loss.

So where does the team go from here? Well, nowhere this season. There aren't any young guys in the system that I'm excited to see with the September call-ups. I'll still watch all the games I can this season, but the excitement surrounding this team is gone. It was great while it lasted. No Pirates fans have been excited about the team in July for 18 years. It was nice to see that it was possible and that this town still has passion for this team.

The positives to take away is that the team is continuing its recent commitment to signing the best available draft picks, even if it takes ridiculous deals to do so. I have never heard of team spending $5 million on a second-round pick in baseball, but the Pirates did that to entice high school outfielder Josh Bell. Bell sent a letter out to every team before the draft telling them not to bother with him, as he was going to college. The Pirates drafted him anyway and then opened up their wallets.

Just to put into perspective how significant Bell's bonus is, the Pirates signed Pedro Alvarez to a $6 million deal when he was the second overall pick. Bell was the 61st overall pick. The Pirates' second-round pick in 2010, Stetson Allie, signed for $2.25 million. So it's pretty clear the Pirates really wanted Bell and sent a good message to their fans that they're willing to dish out the cash.

The only problem is Bell is only 18. Like Allie ad Jameson Taillon, it will probably be at least three to four years before we see this guy. I think building through the draft is the only way the team can compete in the future, but the franchise is asking a lot of their fans. This fanbase has waited 18 years for another winning team and keeps hearing about the future. There is a whole generation of fans who haven't seen a winning team. How much longer can the franchise expect these fans to wait?

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - The Waiting

Breaking my silence with some thoughts

2011-08-11T16:45:00.000-04:00

By Jeff

By now I have probably lost the seven readers I had as I haven't had a post in almost two weeks. Once again, there are no excuses other than I've been kinda lazy. My bad.

The only good thing about a hiatus of this length is that I have a lot of stuff on my mind, which is below.

Within a two-week span, the Pittsburgh Pirates went from first place in the National League Central to third place and 10.5 games back. What's worse is they've also dropped four game below .500. I wish there was just one aspect of the team to blame, but the hitting, fielding, starting pitching and bullpen have all gone down the crapper. Mike might owe me a Coke after all.

Bringing in Ryan Ludwick and Derek Lee for basically nothing were good moves. Too bad Lee has some nagging injuries and Ludwick isn't showing any pop yet. Neither guy will or should be back next year.

Heard some guys on The Fan telling listeners that the team should trade Paul Maholm, Ludwick and Lee before the season is over. Why? You're not going to get anything for them. They make the team better right now and will make the team more entertaining for fans. If these were really good players that could bring back some good prospects, I'd be all for it, but they're not going to bring back anything of value.

Baseball's unwritten rules are lame and make their players look like wusses. Hearing Justin Verlander bitch and moan because Erick Aybar tried to bunt in the seventh inning when Verlander had a no-hitter going. The game was 3-0 and still within reach. Why shouldn't Aybar bunt? He has bunted for hits in the past and is a speed guy. It's not like Mark Trumbo went up there and bunted. And the whole, a guy hits a home run so you plunk the next batter thing is stupid. Oh, and no stealing with a big lead is dumb. Games can change in an inning. What's wrong with a team trying to score more runs and get more insurance?

I was watching First Take this morning and they were sharing the storylines for tonight's preseason games. Since when are their any real storylines in the first preseason games. The starters and those fighting for a starting spot aren't in the game for more than a series. You can't tell how new free agents or coaches fit with the team yet.

I keep hearing people making fun of Pete Carroll's moves in Seattle and bringing up how he ruined the New England Patriots during his three years there. He was 10-6, 9-7 and 8-8 with the Patriots. That's not terrible. Hell, that's not even bad. If you want to make fun of him for thinking Tavaris Jackson can make it as a starter, I completely agree. But let's not bring up his New England stint and say he set that franchise back. He didn't.

Holdouts in the NFL bother me. Chris Johnson is an incredible running back. There is no disputing that. But show up at camp and play out your contract. You signed something and made a commitment. There was nothing in there that specifically said if you rushed for so many yards, you would be outplaying your contract. Show up already. Maybe I am just angry because I have the first pick in two fantasy drafts and would like to know what Johnson is up to.

Can we stop using the term "Dream Team" to describe good teams? There was one dream team. The Philadelphia Eagles do have a great secondary, but it how can they be deemed the Dream Team without the best corner back in the league (Revis)?

If you knew me in high school, you probably know I refused to read the Harry Potter books or even watch the movies. It was probably because so many people thought they were the greatest things ever and that kind of popularity bothers me. So I would rip Harry and his fans despite not reading a page of the books. Well, I'm older now and through five of the books. They're not bad. Still not a fan of the movies, but the books are decent.

I miss hockey.

"Breaking Bad" is kind of getting boring. Jesse is all sad because he killed a guy, Walt wants to protect Jesse and I still wish Skyler and Walter Jr. were killed off in Season 2. We're four or five episodes into the new season and nothing has happened that did not happen in Season 3. They are cooking meth, Walt has violent mood swings and Jesse is in danger of being killed. Maybe they should have killed him at the end of Season 1 like they were initially planning.

Does anyone actually care if NBA players go to Europe this year? I'm just not an NBA fan. If I don't care about these guys when they play in this country, I certainly follow them in Turkey.

Yigo just chased a fly across the yard, to the porch and then ate it. I'd be disgusted if I wasn't so impressed by his mouth-eye coordination and persistence.

"Final Fantasy 13" was by far the worst game in the series since "Final Fantasy 8". I beat it about a month ago and was thoroughly disappointed with story and game play. How can you have a Final Fantasy without a world map? Hell, the game didn't even have the steal ability. At least the antagonist wasn't a sorceress from the future who is possessing other sorceresses in present time. That was just lame.

Jerricho Cotchery just signed with the Steelers to be their 5th receiver. It's a nice signing for the Steelers. With Hines Ward in decline and uncertainty about the health of Emmanuel Sanders, Cotchery is a great depth signing who could step in and do well. He's only 29 and had decent production as a starter in his career.

Why are we still talking about Tim Tebow and Kyle Orton? This has to be the most attention a 4-12 team has ever received.

Jim Rome is a tool.

Randy Moss has retied and it's a shame he never cared for an extended period of time. He had all the talent in the world and had an impressive career, minus his stint in Oakland, but will go down as a bit of a disappointment because he never lived up to his potential.

Roy Orbison - Only the Lonely

Eagles making big splashes in free agency

2011-07-31T11:33:00.000-04:00

By Jeff

The city of Philadelphia is very excited for the NFL season to start. I've been here the past few days, and in that time the team has signed Nnamdi Asomugha and Vince Young and traded for Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie. Don't forget they added Jason Babin, who had 12.5 sacks for the Tennessee Titans last year.

Needless to say, fans of the team are thinking this is a championship year.

Of course, Eagles fans are like any other Philadelphia fans in that they are relly passionate and really annoying. I want to tell them how their moves suck and they won't do anything in the playoffs, but that would be a lie. They have one of the best two corners in the league to go along with two other very good ones. Their defensive line just got a very good pass rusher and Vince Young could be Michael Vick 2.0 in terms of reviving his career. The only thing they don't have going for them is their top weapon on offense, DeSean Jackson, is holding out for now. We see this every year and it's pretty much guaranteed he'll be playing when September rolls around.

On the other side of the state, the Pittsburgh Steelers aren't doing too much. They released tackles Max Starks and Flozell Adams. Starks was coming back from an injury, owed a lot of money and was really fat. Adams was owed $5 million and the Steelers didn't like him that much. They did re-sign Willie Colon, Jonathan Scott and Ike Taylor, though. Colon and Taylor were great signings, Scott has me shaking my head a little bit. Why can't the Steelers find a reliable lft tackle to protect Ben Roethlisberger's blind side? I know this team got to the Super Bowl with Scott playing left tackle for half the season, but that does't mean Scott played well. Roethlisberger still got sacked and pressured often.

Of course, we can't talk about the moves made this past week without touching on the New England Patriots. In usual Bill Belichick fashion, the Pats got two very talented players in Albert Haynesworth and Chad Ochocinco for a couple late round draft picks.

What the hell? Every year the Patriots are doing this. Is Belichick the only man that thinks he can handle these egos, so he can make these ridiculous deals? If that's true, then I'm losing a lot of respect for coaches around the league. Belichick is a great coach. It pains me to admit that but I have to. But at the same time, there have to be others out there that have a set of balls and can get big egos in check. Right?

If the season is anything like the excitement that free agency brought, we're in for a great year.

The Eagles - Peaceful, Easy Feeling

Pirates do need to make a trade

2011-07-29T11:05:00.005-04:00

by Mike Z

First for the record, this isn't a post to slap fearless leader's post in the face, but just to play devil's advocate. This post is coming off the heel's of Paul Zeise's blurb in the Post-Gazette about Hurdle indicating Lyle Overbay is on the verge of losing his job if he doesn't turn it around quick. I've mentioned Lyle Overbay a few times in the past about how poorly he's performed, but here's a couple other stats to further reinforce things.

One of the best comparative stats out there is adjusted OPS, abbreviated OPS+, which takes OBP plus Slugging (OPS) across the league and also adjusts for ballpark factors. A score of exactly 100 is league average. Approaching 75-80 is very poor and 120-125 is very good. League leader usually approaches 200, which is where Joey Bats is right now. It may be helpful to become familiar with OPS+ because I've seen it more and more in articles because it incorporates stadium neutrality. (Granted, it still gauges OBP as SLG equals, which isn't exactly true because OBP has been proven to be more predictive of run production, but OPS+ is still hugely effective.)

Overbay for the season is at 82 now, being a 108 for his career. His last 8 seasons: 122, 112, 125, 85 (injury shortened 2007), 108, 119, 105, 82. So this is a pretty severe drop-off. To further condemn him, his last two months are 87 and an abysmal 58 this month. To put that into numbers you're more familiar to, Lyle's OPS this month is .567. Bautista's slugging alone is higher than that. He's absolutely destroying this team.

This black hole is why the Pirates need to make a trade (or at the very least, find someone internally). For the talk on Carlos Pena, he's been slumping the past 3 weeks or so but still has an OPS+ of 116. The difference between the two players is about 3 wins, according to WAR at this point in the season and projects to be about 2 more by the end of the season. Now am I saying that Carlos Pena is a good player? Absolutely not, and I think calling him decent is a stretch. He can't hit lefties at all, as he's only hitting .125 (yes, that's one-hundred-twenty five) and glove isn't anything special so there are still plenty of flaws.

Whether it's Lyle Overbay, or any of the other names rumored like Jason Kubel or Casey Kotchman, they all have severe flaws. But when it comes to who they are replacing, it's an upgrade no matter who you're replacing Overbay with. And for all the flaws the players have, especially with Carlos Pena, they can be had for cheap. The Pirates have a lot of players eligible for the rule 5 draft this year and won't be able to protect all of them. Trading one of these C+ type prospects and taking on all of Pena's contract would most likely be enough. Replacing the Grand Canyon with a crater definitely isn't ideal but it's definitely better than what the Pirates have now.

Pirates can only blame themselves

2011-07-27T19:33:00.000-04:00

By Jeff

If you haven't seen it by now, here is a link to the final play of last night's game between the Pittsburgh Pirates and Atlanta Braves. To me, Julio Lugo is clearly out, but he was called safe and the Braves won in the 19th inning. Even Lugo thought he was out.

As obvious as that call appears, you can't blame the umpires for the Pirates losing that game and falling to third in the NL Central. Sure, it certainly ended the game prematurely, but it should have never got to that point.

After storming out to a 3-0 lead after the second inning, the Pirates failed to score a run in the next 17 innings. That's embarassing. Lyle Overbay further made his case for release by going 1-for-7. The team as a whole just wasn't clutch. Pedro Alvarex, Overbay and Andrew McCutchen all could have put the Bucs ahead when they had runners on third base with less than two outs, but they didn't. Xavier Paul could have done whatever necessary to hit the ball on a suicide squeee attempt, but instead pulled the bunt back and left his teammate out to dry.

To be fair, the Braves' bullpen, like the Pirates', was excellent last night. As much as we want to rip on the Pirates offense for stinking, and they did, credit has to be given to the opposition. On the flip side, Pirates fans should be pleased from the amazing performance of their team's bullpen.

Last night's thriller was a tremendous baseball game that had fans on the edge of their seats for six hours. That's tough for baseball. While the final play has placed a stain on the game, it was great to see Pirates fans care so much. Go look at the ratings. They were comparable to Penguins playoff games. That's absurd for a Pirates game.

I wish the game ended clean with no controversy, but there was no such luck. But Pirates fans can't blame the umps too much. The guy was consistently terrible all night. But if the Pirates scored a few runs when they had the chances, the ump's most egregious error would have never happened.

By the way, despite the lineup sucking, I still don't think trading for an above average bat is the right way to go.

Dropkick Murphys - Hang Em' High

Pirates don't need to make a trade

2011-07-25T11:15:00.000-04:00

By Jeff

With the Pittsburgh Pirates tied for first place in the National League Central Division and the trade deadline looming Sunday, many fans and sports writers are crying for the team to make a move.

I understand these thoughts. The Pirates were not expected to be any good this year, or next really. This is an opportunity for them to not only break the 18 consecutive years of losing records, but actually win the division. It's a mentality this team and fans haven't known in a long time and it's exciting to think that the team might be buyers. Too bad there is nothing worse buying out there right now.

As a Pirates fan, there is nothing more I'd want to see than this team make the playoffs. Once they're in, anything can happen. But looking at the type of players available this year, the Pirates would be better off in the long run to just sit back and let players get healthy.

I'm not saying Carlos Beltran, Carlos Pena or Hunter Pence wouldn't be upgrades to what the Pirates have right now. They certainly would be. But two of these players are not worth what is being demanded for them. There are reports that the New York Mets want four top prospects, one of whom is major league ready, for Beltran. The Houston Astros have asked a similar price for Pence.

Neither of these players is worth that kind of haul. Their teams are just trying to take advantage of a weak market this season. Beltran would immediately be the Pirates home run leader and Pence would be second but that's not saying much on a team that doesn't hit home runs.

I would be more inclined to snag Pence. He is younger and he wouldn't be a free agent at the end of the year. But if the Astros are demanding anything that includes Jameson Taillon then the Pirates have to say no. Taillon is the best chance this team has of getting an ace any time soon (Sorry, Karstens). And pitching is what wins championships in baseball.

Carlos Pena is interesting because he wouldn't require the Pirates give up a top prospect. At least he shouldn't. The man can't hit for average, but he does get on base and hit the homers. Two things Lyle Overbay doesn't do. This is the one move I wouldn't mind seeing the Pirates make. But at the same time, if they didn't, I wouldn't think ill of the team.

There will be a time when the Pirates can and should take a big risk at the deadline. Now is not that time. If the right deal presents itself, the team should definitely move on it. But they shouldn't sacrifice the future for any of the men named above. They are good players, but they are not superstars that will take this team over the top. Let's be honest, the Pirates lineup needs more than one bat right now. Just one of these guys won't increase their odds of winning the division that much.

Fans will be pissed if the team doesn't do something at the deadline. They shouldn't be. This team has done more than was ever expected this season. They have brought passion back to baseball fans in this town. They can't risk the future, which appears to be promising, for one season. That's just another way teams get stuck sucking year after year.

Big Country - The Promised Land

Damn you, NFL!

2011-07-22T11:07:00.000-04:00

By Jeff

The reason I'm so upset with the NFL, both players and owners, is because they created a product that I am pretty much addicted to. This addiction means I will watch football when the season starts up again even though I'm pissed at the league and it's players.

The latest revelation is that the players once again think the owners are trying to screw them over. This is a day after owners approved a new CBA and reports were that the players would approve today. They didn't. Instead they are going back to their previous stance that owners are trying to screw them. It was so annoying hearing Takeo Spikes tell us that this was a power play by the owners.

What happened to all the good feelings we were hearing about the past 10 days? Well, other than Peyton Manning and Logan Mankins being little girls about the franchise tag. Poor guys. I get why they don't want huge, guaranteed one-year contracts. They want to get massive, multi-year deals. That's nice, but fans don't like hearing guys complaining about receiving guaranteed deals that would give said players eight figure salaries for a year.

But even with this news, and the fact owners were crying about making tons of money, but not quite enough, I won't boycott the NFL. The game is a part of my life in the fall and winter. I would wake up at 3 a.m. every Monday on Guam so I could watch the game. Sleep be damned. It's an escape from the fact the weekend is almost over.

Of course, these feelings leave me even more pissed at the owners and players. They have such a great thing going, yet they would risk it all for more money.

Weezer - You Might Think

Funny, wonderful feelings

2011-07-19T17:05:00.000-04:00

By Jeff

Pittsburgh residents usually only have one thing on their mind this time of year when it comes to sports. Steelers training camp.

For those of you who are not from around here, this is because there is nothing going on in the hockey world and the Pirates haven't been above .500 at this point in the season for almost two decades.

But something has changed. The Pirates don't suck! Hell, they're in first place on July 19. That is not a typo or a blatant disregard for the truth. No. It is fact. If you look up the MLB standings and scroll down to the National League Central Division you will see the Pirates with a 50-44 record and a .5 game lead over the Milwaukee Brewers for first place.

It's a weird and new feeling for young Pirates fans. We are actually watching every Pirates game we can with legitimate excitement. Not the joking, "Hey we're only 20 games out of first," excitement, but genuine excitement about what this team can accomplish.

I have to admit, while I have been an optimist regarding this team ever since Dave Littlefield got canned, I never thought this team was going to win in 2011. I'm pretty sure I bet Mike a Coke that the team would be under 70 wins. I thought 2012 was going to be the year the dark ages ended. potentially being wrong never felt so good. Well, it has, but not in regards to the Pirates.

What is most encouraging about the Pirates' success is that the team is not showing signs of a tragic fall that fans have been expecting. The team hasn't lost two games in a row for a month. If they suck one day, they have been resilient and take a win the next day. They also have a run differential of plus 14. So they aren't getting blown out in their losses like previous seasons.

So when is the Neal Huntingdon movie coming out? I'm pretty sure it might be more relevant than the upcoming "Moneyball" movie.

Michael Jackson - The Way You Make Me Feel

AL Positional WAR All-Stars

2011-07-19T10:30:00.010-04:00

by Mike Z

Hey guys, sorry for the long delay. Here's the AL list. I'll focus on the original guys that were placed on team, instead of analyzing the 90 other players that were added a replacements. All stats are through July 18th.

C - Alex Avila - 2.7 WAR
Reserve - Matt Wieters - 2.6 WAR
Reserve - Carlos Santana - 2.4 WAR

Actual - Alex Avila - 2.7 WAR
Reserve - Matt Wieters - 2.6 WAR
Reserve - Russell Martin 1.7 WAR

Avila has quietly come out of nowhere to help a Detroit offense that would arguable be a liability without him. At the halfway point, he already had more runs, RBI and HR than he did all last year. Granted, his BABIP is .350, but he is only 23 and will probably only get better. Wieters here is why I jokingly gave Jeff a hard time in the comments a couple posts back. He's really improving as a hitter, after really looking lost his first season. His K% dropped each year from 22.3%, to 18.7% to 15.5% this year and he's slugging .425, well above league average, and even more so compared to other catchers.

1B - Adrian Gonzalez - 4.5 WAR
Reserve - Miguel Cabrera - 3.3 WAR
Reserve - Mark Teixeira - 2.6 WAR

Actual - Adrian Gonzalez - 4.5 WAR
Reserve - Miguel Cabrera - 3.3 WAR
Reserve - Paul Konerko - 2.5 WAR

Yes, by using SABR, I was able to figure out that Adrian Gonzalez is good at baseball. For me, it's fun seeing WAR numbers for the people destroying the league because they just look absurd. That said, his WAR is only 3rd highest for his team, which is surprising and I'll get to in a little bit. He's quietly having a great season again, and his WAR would be higher if he knew how to use his glove. I'd have gone with Konerko over Teixeira in the actual game as well. For the 2nd half however, keep an eye on Teixeira because he's only hitting .239 due to his insanely unlucky .221 BABIP so he could start flat-out raking soon.

2B - Dustin Pedroia - 5.5 WAR
Reserve - Ben Zobrist - 4.8 WAR

Actual - Robinson Cano - 2.9 WAR
Reserve - Howie Kendrick - 4.0 WAR

This is the first position in this post series that wildly varies from actual vs. WAR. Does it surprise anyone that Pedroia has the 2nd highest WAR in all of baseball? After having the foot injury that hampered him last year and raised plenty of questions if he could hold up over a full season, he may be having a better season than his MVP year, and nobody is talking about it. Check out these lines:

Games HR R RBI SB BB%
2008 157 17 118 83 20 6.9%
2011 91 13 63 50 17 15.0%

He's on pace to crush these totals. In 2008, his total WAR was 6.8 so he's just on a tear right now. If Cano weren't voted on, Pedey is on this team easy. Zobrist is interesting too because his stats are more in line with his 2009 stats than his disappointing 2010 follow up. (He's also eligible as an OF)

SS - Asdrubal Cabrera - 3.5 WAR
Reserve - Jhonny Peralta - 3.3 WAR

Actual - Derek Jeter - 1.0 WAR
Reserve - Asdrubal Cabrera - 3.5 WAR

How awesome has Asdrubal been? He's playing an amazing SS and playing a huge part in turning around the Indians. I'm waiting to see him turn a double play by fielding a grounder while doing a cartwheel. His glove is sick. I don't need to say much about Jeter that hasn't been said. I'm fine with the lifetime achievement picks like this, but I'd like to see All-Star appearances stopped being used as a Hall of Fame gauge. Props to Peralta for hitting better than he ever has--he's earned his spot as a replacement. Honorable mention to Yunel Escobar being hundreths of a point below Jhonny.

3B - Alex Rodriguez - 4.1 WAR
Reserve - Kevin Youkilis - 3.4 WAR

Actual - Alex Rodriguez -4.1 WAR
Reserve - Adrian Beltre - 3.3 WAR

Statistically A-Rod is having his best season since his 30-100-100 of 2008. He's again playing great with the bat, and his war is somewhat inflated with a high UZR rating, which I feel is skewing things slightly. Not too much going on with this position to debate. Watch Beltre in the second half as he's getting unlucky with a low BABIP and a few other things, so he may experience a spike in production.

OF 1 - Jose Bautista - 6.9 WAR
OF 2 - Curtis Granderson - 4.7 WAR
OF 3 - Jacoby Ellsbury - 4.7 WAR
Reserve 1 - Brett Gardner - 3.7 WAR
Reserve 2 - Melky Cabrera - 3.1 WAR
Reserve 3 - Carlos Quentin - 2.7 WAR
Reserve 4 - Denard Span - 2.7 WAR

Actual 1 - Jose Bautista - 6.9 WAR
Actual 2 - Curtis Granderson - 4.7 WAR
Actual 3 - Josh Hamilton - 1.7 WAR
Reserve 1 - Jacoby Ellsbury - 4.7 WAR
Reserve 2 - Carlos Quentin - 2.7 WAR
Reserve 3 - Matt Joyce - 2.3 WAR
Reserve 4 - Michael Cuddyer - 2.2 WAR

This is a great example of where the criticism of WAR is best portrayed. 4 out of the 7 on the WAR team received a huge boost due to their defensive rating. WAR has been determined to be one of the best ways to compare overall worth of players, but be sure to keep this list in mind when looking at WAR. That said, Bautista is making a mockery of the league again. 6.9 WAR is just insane. There will only be a handful of players that will break 7 WAR by the end of the entire season. Just another example of how ridiculous he's performing.

DH - David Ortiz - 2.5 WAR
Reserve - Michael Young 2.0 WAR

Actual - David Ortiz - 2.5 WAR
Reserve - Michael Young 2.0 WAR

No surprises here. I'm still slightly amazed how it looked like in 2009 that Ortiz just lost his hitting ability for half a season, then all of a sudden put it back together like nothing happened. Good for Michael Young keeping things together after "losing his position" in the off-season. Granted, there was a good bit of whining on his part and was asking for a trade, but he's put a nice season together. If Travis Hafner didn't get hurt, he would've most likely been the reserve.

Just one more post on the AL pitchers and you don't have to look at WAR again for another year.

Amusement park review: Dorney Park

2011-07-15T13:25:00.000-04:00

By Jeff

My fiancee and I have a thing for amusement parks and zoos. We love them and went Dorney Park in Allentown, Pa., for the first time yesterday. It was fun, but nothing special.

You have to know that the park is owned by the same company that owns Cedar Point, the best amusement park I've ever been to. So my hopes were high for Dorney, despite it being a fraction of the size of Cedar Point. This relationship is evident by the Peanuts theme and all of the restuarants and vendors around Dorney, as they are the same as Cedar Point.

As for the rides, it's like Cedar Point's rides had children and shipped them to Dorney. There are five roller coasters (I will never consider the Wild Mouse a roller coaster), and they are decent but not incredible. First, we rode Talon, an inverted coaster with a 135-foot drop and a high speed of 58 mph. It was a smooth and fun ride. If Cedar Point's Raptor and Mantis had a baby, it would be Talon. While the speed and height is nearly identical to Raptor, it's not as fun. There are less loops and turns, kind of like Mantis.

Next up was Hydra, which was our least favorite of the five. It's only 95 feet and barely tops 50 mph. It boasts that it begins with a unique twist that flips riders upside-down to start out, but you're going like 5 mph through the twist. It would be one thing to be shot through the twist to start, but ou slowly roll through it, so what's the point? The rest of the ride is pretty lame. If Mantis and Corkscrew had a child and then left it at the firestation it would be Hydra.

The only wooden coaster at Dorney is Thunderhawk and it's great. Thunderhawk is 87 years old and you can tell during your ride. You are tossed around from side to side and never feel safe, but it doesn't hurt your body either. It's exactly what you want from a wooden coaster. Thunderhawk would be the child of Mean Streak and Blue Streak at Cedar Point. It has the speed and excitement of Mean Streak, but you can enjoy it pain-free like Blue Streak.

The gem of Dorney's coasters is Steel Force. The logo is like a ripoff of Kennywood's Steel Phantom/Phantom's Revenge, but the ride itself is a ripoff of Cedar Point's Magnum XL-200. Steel Force has practically the same height and speed as Magnum, and it even has the tunnels that Magnum does. Hell, it's even red. But guess what? Magnum is an incredible coaster and Steel Force does it's daddy proud. Basically, it is Magnum's adopted child.

The final coaster at Dorney is Possessed, which is one of those coasters that consists of two towers and riders are propelled up the towers a few times. It's a fun ride, but only one side twists, whereas Cedar Point's Wicked Twister has twists on both towers. If you're a man, there is also the fact it kind of hurts your tenders, especially when you go up the tower backward. Make sure you push down on your harness to relieve pressure on your groin and you should be OK. Rather than being Wicked Twister's child, Possessed is more like Wicked Twister's sibling that was never as successful.

Other fun rides at Dorney were Dominator (A mini Power Tower), Meteor (Identical to Kennywood's Aero 360), Enterprise and Screamin' Swing (Kennywood's Swing Shot). I wanted to do Thunder Creek Mountain (Kennywood's Log Jammer) but my fiancee does not like water rides.

Dorney also has a nice looking waterpark, but we did not go in there at all as we didn't know the night riders' passes were good for the waterpark as well. Hmm. That kind of sounds like Cedar Point!

The Who - The Kids Are All Right

Home Run Derby needs to change or end

2011-07-15T12:44:00.000-04:00

By Jeff

MLB's Home Run Derby during the All-Star Break has lost all of its allure.

It's just boring now watching sluggers take batting practice. It's even more boring watching them take pitch after pitch. And it's really annoying listening to Chris Berman and the other commentators act shocked at how far balls are going on every home run. I mean, these guys are routinely hitting it 400 feet or greater, and these commentators are in awe of every one. When a player does something rare, like Josh Hamilton hitting 28 first-round bombs, then it's OK to go nuts for every home run. That's exciting. That type of feat rarely happens.

Instead of seeing Hamilton-like shows, we're forced to sit through the Matt Kemps and Rickie Weeks-type players, who hit two homers but still take five pitches between swings. It's so boring.

So the league needs to either get rid of the event, which they won't do because it makes a lot of money, or change it up. It was cute that they had captains pick the squads this year, but it served no purpose. It wasn't AL versus NL. It was still every man for himself.

MLB might be on to something with their tiebreaker. The players vying for the second round only got five swings regardless of the result. Why not do that for the whole event? Give each player 10 swings. Of course, this would make moments like the Josh Hamilton show impossible, but we've already established that performances like his are few and far between. And it's kind of ridiculous that Hamilton didn't even win that year because you reset for the final. Just another issue I have with the spectacle.

Now, if you limit the number of swings, that also limits the charity ball. I love that a sponsor will donate large amounts of money to charity for every home run hit with nine outs. It's the one thing MLB has right with the derby. Well, how about we limit the swings to 10, but once you have nine swings you get an extra swing for every home run you hit. That will keep the charity ball in play and still speed up the derby.

None of this will ever happen though. The money is too good for MLB and ESPN. If the derby isn't four hours, then ESPN won't get as many advertisers.

At least I can dream, right?

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - The Waiting

Athletes being stupid: James Harrison

2011-07-13T12:14:00.000-04:00

By Jeff

James Harrison is a great linebacker. Some may think he plays dirty, but I think the majority of the plays he was fined for were not really dirty hits. His football skills aside, Harrison comes off as an idiot.

The lastest example is an interview he did in a recent issue of Men's Journal. Harrison rips Roger Goodell, Ben Roethlisberger and Rashard Mendenhall in the interview. You can read some of the quotes in the link above, but they don't let you read the full story. More of the quotes are in this Post-Gazette story.

While I giggled a little bit when I read the line about how Harrison wouldn't pee on Goodell if the man was on fire, I can't approve of those comments. According to the Post-Gazette, Harrison also used a gay slur to describe Goodell, which is wrong and needs to stop in sports and society in general. Now, I am guilty of having used gay in inapproriate ways or as insults, but I'm trying to eliminate words like gay, fag, homo and similar words when I rip on people. I'm saying this because if you're a regular reader, you know I try and point out my hypocrisy.

Anyway, Harrison was already out of line when he started ripping his own teammates. He had some harsh words for Roethlisberger's two interceptions and Mendenhall's fumbling in the Super Bowl. While the plays Harrison talks about in the article definitely hurt the Steelers, it's incredibly stupid to call out your teammates in a magazine months after the Super Bowl.

Football is the ultimate team game. You never win or lose because of one or two players. Teams win or lose because one team plays better or one doesn't play well. The defense could have stepped up, but instead were beat by Aaron Rodgers. There is no doubt the game would have been different without there turnovers. But it would have also been different had the defense stopped the Packers on several third and long plays.

Those are words that should stay in the locker room. They are not for the world to read about or for Roethlisberger or Mendenhall to read for the first time after a friend sends them a link. This can really mess of team chemistry. If Harrison wants to remain a member of the Steelers, he may want to issue an apology or have a chat with his teammates and team management. The Steelers organization havs never had a shortage of linebackers and Harrison is 33 years old. While he is stil producing like an elite linebacker, the Steelers have shown in the past they have no problem with cutting older veterans and just finding that next great linebacker.

Kenny Loggins - Footloose

Selling my soul by kind of defending Dave Littlefield

2011-07-08T12:53:00.000-04:00

By Jeff

If you know me well, I've probably told you the story where I almost won one of those envelopes that blimps drop during intermissions of Pittsburgh Penguins games.

It's always been my dream to catch one of these magical envelopes, and in 2007 I had an open lane to sprint and grab one. I started my dash with glory on my mind, but then noticed a small boy patiently waiting for the envelope to fall into his waiting arms. At tht moment two options went through my head. The first was truck the little kid and just keep running to avoid the ushers and angry parents. The second was to pull up and let the kid have the envelope. I was with blog contributor Mike at the time, and he would have made me feel like a terrible person if I destroyed the kid, so I went with option B.

I tell this story because I then saw the boy run to his dad and boast about his prize. His dad was then Pittsburgh Pirates general manager Dave Littlefield. I immediately regretted my decision. Littlefield was and still is despised in the city of Pittsburgh. No one would have been mad at me if I checked his kid. Hell, they probably would have come to my aid if Littlefield came after me.

For those readers who are familiar with the Littlefield era, you know he sucked as a GM. He is the one who traded Aramis Ramirez for garbage. He is the one that traded for Matt Morris and didn't have the San Francisco Giants help pay any of his remaining $10 million contract. Morris was cut less than a year later. Littlefield made signings like Jeromy Burnitz and Joe Randa when they had nothing left in the tank. Basically, he was one of the worst general managers ever.

What a tool.

One of his most critiqued moves was using the fourth pick in the 2007 draft to take Danny Moskos, a guy who was never projected to be more than a decent closer at best. In doing so, Littlefield passed up on switch-hitting catcher Matt Wieters, who was projected to rise through the ranks quickly and be a superstar. This is usually the first thing Littlefield haters bring up when discussing reasons to plot his demise.

Well, I'm here to defend Littlefield to an extent. Let me make it clear, I hated Littlefield and think he set the Pirates franchise back about 10 years with all his moves. It's just this is an interesting topic to look at.

Wieters ended up going to the Baltimore Orioles and was called up in 2009. Since that day he has a career average of .267, an OBP of .327, 28 home runs and 132 RBIs in 1065 at bats. Now he's only 25, but those aren't exactly superstar numbers.

Now let's look at the Pirates primary catcher from 2008 to the present , Ryan Doumit. Once again, if you know me, I'm not a fan of Doumit. He is terrible on defense and has the most evil eyes on the planet. With his demonic possession aside, Doumit's stats in this timeframe are: .276 average, .321 OBP, 42 home runs and 167 RBIs in 1210 at bats.

So Doumit's stats are pretty similar to Wieters, but he has one more year under his belt in this comparison. He is also more injury prone and not as good defensively. So is all the hate thrown Littlefield's and Doumit's way really justified? Looking at the numbers and Wieters' struggles in the majors, I think it's likely Pirates fans would probably be hating on Wieters and Littlefield had he been selected with the No. 4 pick. OK, so Littlefield would be hated no matter what.

Moskos made his majors debut this season and is doing well except for a bad game. He's 1-0, has appeared in 21 games, pitched 16.1 innings and has a 2.76 ERA. The ERA is a little misleading as his WHIP is 1.65. Certainly he wasn't worth the No. 4 pick, but he hasn't been terrible in doing the job he's been asked to do.

While lots of people wish Wieters was the Pirates selection, they should really be mad for the team passing on names like Madison Bumgarner and Jason Heyward, who have played big roles for their teams.

OK, maybe this isn't a defense of Littlefield. He sucked no matter how you look at it.

Ben Folds - Sleazy

Green Lantern not terrible, lots of things die in Transformers

2011-07-05T15:11:00.000-04:00

By Jeff

Sports is in a lull right now. I could go through the MLB all-stars snubs and surprises, but Mike is doing a fun job of that already. All I'm going to say about it is that it's frustrating to see players like Andrew McCutchen and Mark Teixeira get jobbed out of spots. But this is a game for the fans, and they vote who they want to see. It's an unfair system, but it makes sense. Well, Bruce Bochy doesn't make any sense.

Anyway, because there is nothing exciting in sports, here are few movie reviews for your reading pleasure.

First, we have "Green Lantern". It wasn't that bad. People are trashing it pretty good, but it entertained me for the most part. Ryan Reynolds was good, not great, in the starring role of Hal Jordan. Blake Lively was OK, Peter Sarsgard was solid, Tim Robbins was useless, and Mark Strong wasn't around nearly enough.

The rest of the movie had it's usual comic book movies draws and flaws. The special effects were fun and a dogfight early in the movie was pretty cool to watch. Ridiculous like every movie dogfight, but still enjoyable. Seeing the filmmakers create all the different constructs the Green Lanterns used was interesting and surprisingly tame. Maybe that's because Jordan has yet to fully harness his power. I mean the ring he wears allows him to create anything in his mind. There are literally endless possibilities.

A major flaw was character development. Sarsgard's character, Hector Hammond, and Jordan clearly have some kind of history together. But that history is never explained in any way. It was pretty lazy. They could have looked at Jordan and Lively's character's history, but they hardly did that either.

The main problem with the movie was Strong as the Green Lantern Sinestro, only had a few scenes. Of course, if there is a sequel he is going to be in it a lot more. But when you have a talent like that on staff, use it! Why not have him team up with Jordan to take down the bad guy, which was a giant being known as Parallax that eats people's and planet's fear, which then kills them rather than making them fearless. That would have made his fall all more powerful and gut wrenching than it will be. Yes, I just played spoiler without warning and don't care. If you know anything about the Green Lantern comics or cartoon appearances, you know Sinestro is a pretty bad dude.

Overall, it was a B-. It was more entertaining than "Thor" but not as clever or well-done as movies like "X-Men: First Class" and "Iron Man".

Then there was "Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon", the finale of the Transformers trilogy. Listen, if you go to a Transformers movie for plot, you're silly. It is giant, robotic space aliens fighting each other and humans while Shia LaBeouf runs around screaming. If you take out the words, "bumble", "bee", and "no", LeBeouf would have had maybe 15 lines in the three movies combined.

What's I'm trying to say is that the acting isn't very good, nor does it have to be. Although, Alan Tudyk and Ken Jeong were great in very limited roles.

"Dark Side of the Moon" was just a fun, blow everything up movie. The last hour of the movie is just non-stop action as the Autobots and Decepticons tear Chicago to pieces as they attempt to kill each other. The special effects are great. Some of them are ridiculously stupid, even for a movie about a warring robotic alien race. But those scenes are still fun.

The movie is well over 2 hours long, which is a bit much. There are a lot of scenes that could have been cut, as they served little to no purpose.

This review isn't very detailed because there isn't that much you need to know. The acting was the typical Transformers quality, the action was intense and lots of stuff blows up. Optimus Prime talked a little bit of shit, but should have been talking a lot more.

If you like the other two in the series, or just the first one, you will enjoy "Dark Side of the Moon." If you hate robots, dumb action, ridiculous stunts or fun, you won't like this movie. I love all of that stuff so I give it a B.

Alien Ant Farm - Movies

NL Pitching WAR All Stars

2011-07-05T11:11:00.010-04:00

by Mike Z

Similar to position players, WAR still attempts to determine overall value of pitchers. Again, I'm not saying that these are the players that should have been on the team or that the teams should be picked based on WAR. I'm doing this as a different way to evaluate players and to generate some thought and discussion. All stats include up to the end of games July 4th via Fangraphs.

SP 1 - Roy Halladay - 4.7 WAR

SP 2 - Cole Hamels - 3.8 WAR

SP 3 - Clayton Kershaw - 3.6 WAR

SP 4 - Cliff Lee - 3.5 WAR

SP 5 - Daniel Hudson - 3.2 WAR

SP 6 - Tim Lincecum - 3.2 WAR

SP 7 - Jordan Zimmermann - 3.0 WAR

SP 8 - Madison Bumgarner - 2.9 WAR

Actuals

SP 1 - Roy Halladay - 4.7 WAR

SP 2 - Cole Hamels - 3.8 WAR

SP 3 - Clayton Kershaw - 3.6 WAR

SP 4 - Cliff Lee - 3.2 WAR

SP 5 - Tim Lincecum - 3.2 WAR

SP 6 - Matt Cain - 2.6 WAR

SP 7 - Jair Jurrjens - 2.2 WAR

SP 8 - Ryan Vogelsong - 1.4 WAR

Is it really that surprising that the 3 of the top 4 are Philles, with Halladay just crushing everybody? He's 0.4 WAR ahead of CC for leauge lead, and on pace for the best season, according to WAR, of his career. His strikeout rate is at his highest at 8.65 K/9 and his walk rate is at 1.12 BB/9, which is only 0.04 higher than his career best. His xFIP is essentially identical to his ERA (2.41 v.s 2.44) so his ERA is right in line, and his BABIP is .302 as well, so nothing he's doing can not really be attributed to any "luck". The man isn't human, that's all there is to it.

The last couple on the list is a big reason why I find WAR and other SABR stuff so interesting. After Daniel Hudson went to Arizona after being traded from the White Sox, he was lights out, but his numbers superficially make it look like he's dropped off after his breakout. His ERA this season is an uninspiring 3.75 this year. In his first 4 starts, he gave up 17 runs and walked 12 batters in 4 games. But since then, he's been fantastic, he's had a 2.6 ERA since then. Overall, his xFIP of 3.45 indicates he's pitching better than his numbers indicate. His walk rate has dropped from 2.55 BB/9 last year to 2.03 BB/9 this year. You could make a great case for his inclusion.

Jordan Zimmermann is an interesting case because he's been performing like an ace this year with a 2.62 ERA and with a 76/24 K/BB ratio. However, his xFIP is 3.68, indicating some luck. His BABIP is a low .281 and his HR/FB% is a ridiculously tiny 2.9%. That HR rate just has to jump soon, as league average normalizes around 11% every single year.

Now onto the debacle. Ryan Vogelsong is a cool story, pitching lights out after working his way back from pitching in Japan after being absolutely awful with SF and Pittsburgh before that. That said, he has no reason to be near this team. His BABIP is only .256 so he's due for some regression. With the luck he's getting with a skewed BABIP, high left on base percentage, low HR/FB rate and low ground ball percentage, he's bound to come back to earth. All of that goes into his current xFIP of 3.62, about 1.5 higher than his ERA. Plus, he's had at least 5 fewer starts than any other starter (he doesn't have enough starts yet to qualify for statistics yet). Other pitchers that have a WAR of 1.4: Ryan Dempster, Charlie Morton, Paul Maholm, Chris Narveson. There were plenty of better picks than Bochy taking one of his own.

Relief 1 - Craig Kimbrel - 1.9 WAR

Relief 2 - John Axford - 1.3 WAR

Relief 3 - Jonny Venters - 1.3 WAR

Relief 4 - Sean Marshall - 1.3 WAR

Relief 5 - Joel Hanrahan - 1.2 WAR

Actual

Relief 1 - Jonny Venters - 1.3 WAR

Relief 2 - Joel Hanrahan - 1.2 WAR

Relief 3 - Heath Bell - 0.8 WAR

Relief 4 - Tyler Clippard - 0.6 WAR

Relief 5 - Brian Wilson - 0.6 WAR

Because the sample sizes for these guys are so small (52 innings pitched is the high), it's tough to use WAR to compare them. All this really shows is that the save stat is usually overvalued. Craig Kimbrel, Heath Bell and Joel Hanrahan are tied for the league lead with 25 saves, and there's there's a sizable gap between the three. Kimbrel's big lead is driven by his 67 strikeouts, tops for all relievers. There are some guys with some nice seasons like Carlos Marmol or Mike Adams that you could add instead of Clippard or Wilson, but there isn't too much to argue about. It is interesting though that WAR agrees with most analysts that Hanranan and Kimbrel have possibly been the top 2 closers this season.

I'll be out of town for the next few days, so it might be a while, but I'll definitely be back to do WAR for the AL all stars as well. Until then, you can use the time to try and figure out a reason Vogelsong deserves to be on the team. Enjoy.

NL Positional WAR All Stars

2011-07-03T13:43:00.012-04:00

by Mike Z

That's right, I'm back to use SABR to pick the all star teams. As a refresher, WAR (Wins Above Replacement) is an all-encompassing calculation to determine a player's overall worth, in comparison to a player called up from AAA to fill in. The calculations for WAR vary slightly depending on the website you use, so I'll be using the numbers from Fangraphs throughout. All stats are through the beginning of July 3.

C - Brian McCann 3.1 WAR

Reserve - Miguel Montero 2.3 WAR

Actual - Brian McCann 3.1 WAR
Reserve - Yadier Molina 1.4 WAR

Brian McCann has been an absolute animal this year, and deserves the start here. He's blowing everyone away due to his great offensive numbers, as well as leading all catchers in hits, HR, OBP, and RBI. Montero of the Diamondbacks got a huge WAR boost due to some very good offensive numbers, as probably the 2nd best hitting catcher in the NL this year. Because "This game counts~Bud Selig", Molina is a great choice due to his stellar defense, which is really driving up his WAR. No real snubs here at all.

1B - Prince Fielder 3.6 WAR
Reserve - Joey Votto 3.6 WAR
Reserve - Gaby Sanchez 2.5 WAR

Actual 1B - Prince Fielder 3.6 WAR
Reserve - Joey Votto 3.6 WAR
Reserve - Gaby Sanchez 2.5 WAR

WAR lines up perfectly with the actuals here. Picking your starter here comes down to whether you prefer a masher or an on base machine with great defense. Fielder is in the top 5 in baseball slugging, HR, and RBI. Votto has been "slumping" recently and is hitting .317 now and has been on base in all but 5 games this year. He's not slugging nearly as much as Fielder, but has one of the best gloves at 1B in the league. Gaby Sanchez may be surprising here, but he looks like he'll become a big time slugger real soon, if not already, and can field his position well. He's the only Marlins rep, but he does deserve the spot. He beat out Helton and Pujols by 0.1 WAR.

2B - Rickie Weeks 3.3 WAR
Reserve - Danny Espinosa 3.1 WAR

Actual - Rickie Weeks 3.3 WAR
Reserve - Brandon Phillips 2.8 WAR

Those are some high WAR numbers thanks to defense for all three of them. Weeks is having a repeat of his great season of last year, and is more than deserving. (Sidenote - His brother Jemile looks like he's going to be even better) Espinosa is pretty surprising here, but is getting propped up due to his .466 SLG even though he's only hitting .243 overall. Phillips is having another great season, being on pace for career highs for all major categories except steals. I would've gone with him as my reserve as well.

SS - Jose Reyes 5.3 WAR
Reserve - Troy Tulowitzki 3.5 WAR
Reserve - Stephen Drew 2.1 WAR

Actual - Jose Reyes 5.3 WAR
Reserve - Troy Tulowitzki 3.5 WAR
Reserve - Starlin Castro 1.6 WAR

Yeah that Reyes WAR isn't a typo. He's 0.3 behind Bautista for the league lead. He's been that good. You could make a great case for him being the MVP of the first half. Hitting .354 with already having 65 runs and 30 steals is real impressive. The man is going to get paid this offseason. And if the Mets decide to trade him even though he's almost gotten them back to .500, he could bring back a massive haul for all their holes. Or maybe a lot of money to help pay for Bobby Bonilla's buyout for the next 25 years. I have no idea why they need 3 SS, but they need to get a Cub on the roster somehow. I would've gone with Darwin Barney, just because I think his name is awesome.

3B - Ryan Roberts 2.1 WAR
Reserve -Chase Headley 2.0 WAR

Actual - Placido Polanco 1.8 WAR
Reserve - Chipper Jones 0.8 WAR

.......and Polanco wins by default! He's actually done a nice job for the Phillies, but the hot corner has been a whole lot of suck this year in the NL. Chipper's WAR puts him in elite company this year as Chris Getz and Miguel Olivo. Heath Bell is the Padres rep so there's no way they would get 2 and Ryan Roberts is such a generic name that everybody forgot about him.

OF - Andrew McCutchen 4.6 WAR
OF - Matt Kemp 4.5 WAR
OF - Shane Victorino 4.0 WAR
Reserve - Ryan Braun 4.0 WAR
Reserve - Michael Bourn 3.4 WAR
Reserve - Justin Upton 3.3 WAR
Reserve - Matt Holliday 3.2 WAR
Reserve - Carlos Beltran 2.7 WAR

Actual - Matt Kemp 4.5 WAR
Actual - Ryan Braun 4.0 WAR
Actual - Lance Berkman 2.6 WAR
Reserve - Justin Upton 3.3 WAR
Reserve - Matt Holliday 3.2 WAR
Reserve - Carlos Beltran 2.7 WAR
Reserve - Hunter Pence 2.2 WAR
Reserve - Jay Bruce 1.5 WAR

OK who's ready for a rant? Hunter Pence? OK fine I get it, everybody needs a rep (because this is still 4th grade-why not give everybody a plastic trophy for participating?), regardless of how bad they are. But Cincy already has a few, so please explain why Jay Bruce is there for any other reason than the celebrity softball game beforehand? Why would it matter that he has 18 HR when he misses the ball every other time (K% of 26.1)? Plus, he'd still have trouble fielding his position with one of those giant gloves that the mascots use. Not only is McCutchen leading all NL outfielders in WAR, he's 3rd in ALL OF BASEBALL. How he isn't even on that dumb vote for the last player on the team is beyond me. (Michael Morse? REALLLLLY?)

Up next: NL Pitchers

Thanks for the ride, Max. Jagr clearly still thinks he's a star

2011-07-01T16:45:00.000-04:00

By Jeff

If you haven't heard, "The Superstar" Max Talbot has signed a 5-year deal worth $9 million with the Philadelphia Flyers. Considering Talbot was Mr. Pittsburgh these last several years, this was quite a shocker. We all knew he was leaving, we just never thought it would be to the Pens' in-state rivals.

I'm not mad at Talbot. The man scored two of the biggest goals in the franchise's history, played hard when he was here and was an active member of the community. And let's not forget he told a radio station that Alexander Ovechkin is a douche. He will be missed.

It was fun while it lasted, Max. Of course, now these once funny
pictures now serve as proof that you're a douche.

But let's be real, the Pens offered him a 3-year deal and he turned it down. Seeing as Talbot only produced eight goals and 21 points in a season where the team needed everyone to step up their offensive games, that offer was probably in the $1 to $1.5 million per season range. He tested free agency and got a significant raise and the security of a 5-year deal. I can't blame him for leaving, even when considering the team he went to.

Talbot also said all the right things in leaving. He wasn't bitter. He didn't say the Pens were low-balling him. He said he enjoyed his time and the fans here, and that he's making a business decision. Can't argue with that.

Now don't get me wrong, if Brooks Orpik destroys Talbot as he crosses the blue line I will cheer as loud as any Pens fans. All I'm saying is that I appreciate his time here and will never boo him.

Then there was the conclusion to the whole Jaromir Jagr ordeal today. He signed with the Flyers for $3.3 million after supposedly telling the Pens and Mario Lemieux that his heart was in Pittsburgh.

There are two things that are clear here. One is that Jagr wanted what was best for Jagr's pocket, and two is that he still thinks he can be the face of the franchise.

On that first point, Jagr and his agent can deny all they want that it wasn't about the money, but it was. Jagr's agent Peter Svoboda told "The Fan" today that Jagr made what he thought was the best move for his career, and that money had nothing to do with it. Svoboda even went as far as to say Jagr got a 1-year offer for more than $6 million from an NHL team that turned him down.

Anyone who is buying that is living in a fantasy land. No one would pay that kind of money to a 39-year-old who hasn't played in the league for 3 years. No, Jagr wanted to get paid the most he could in the NHL and based his decision on that. Not his heart or where he thinks he can win next year.

You think this hurt, Jagr?
Wait until you get served some free candy.

This brings us to point No. 2. Now I've never spoken to Jagr and don't know his inner thoughts, but I'm thinking he saw the Flyers trade away their two biggest offensive stars and thought he could fill the void. At best, he would have been the third biggest star on the Pens. On the Flyers, he becomes the most recognizable player on the team. You think that doesn't feed his ego just a little bit?

While the way Jagr and Svoboda went about Jagr's decision was selfish, I also can't get mad at Jagr. This is who Jagr is. Pens fans were hoping he had matured with time, but he hasn't. He is still a me-first kind of guy. That would be OK and easy to ignore if he were still putting up 50 goals a season, but he's not. I will cheer against him with all my might because he is a Flyer. Not because he didn't come back to Pittsburgh.

Pens GM Shero was smart to let these two players sign elsewhere while he resigned Tyler Kennedy to 2-year deal and Steve Sullivan to a 1-year deal. And Talbot and Jagr were smart in that they got more money then they could have got here. Before we critique either of them, we need ask ourselves what we would do for raises in excess of $1 million.

The Eagles - After the Thrill is Gone

Lockouts a blessing for NHL?

2011-06-30T16:54:00.000-04:00

By Jeff

Let's be honest, the big four of professional sports hasn't been the big four in a long time. The NHL fell out of that category by letting goons and dirty play annoy fans to the point that they stopped caring about the sport. It reached an all-time low when the league missed the entire 2004-2005 season to a lockout.

Well, with the NBA announcing today that they will begin their own lockout tomorrow, and the NFL isn't as close to a deal as some initially reported, the NHL has an opportunity this fall and winter to gain some ground.

The big question is whether the NHL can take advantage of the potential losses of these other sports' seasons when their games are on Versus and NBC.

As much as it pains me to say it, this won't happen. The NFL will have a season. It's way too much money for these players and owners not to come together and get something done. The NBA may not have a season, but I don't think their fans are really going to flock to NHL arenas as a substitute for their basketball fix. Rather, fans will probably pay closer attention to college basketball, as the NCAA has more games on major networks like ESPN.

On the bright side, the NHL may be on the right track to gaining more attention. Colin Campbell is gone (Best sports firing of 2011?). OK, so he technically resigned, but we all know Gary Bettman just got sick of having to defend the dumbass. The league is also going to look at ways to eliminate dangerous hits to the head, which could also help reduce retaliation fights that scare non-diehard fans away from the game.

The NHL has also shown that they are open to new ideas. They had players draft the All-Star teams this year. It was really boring, as the captains were boring. The most entertaining part of the night was when Kris Letang tripped going to his seat.

The end result kinda sucked, but at least they did something different. Now they are talking realignment to stir up the pot. I love the idea. But it won't happen this season, when they have an opportunity to gain new fans. They need an idea this year.

One thing that would make the game more fun to watch is making the playing surface as big as the International ices. It won't happen, but it would open up the game and make it easier for people to watch on television.

I would also like helmet cams on players. OK, this one is ridiculous but wouldn't it have been great to see what Brooks Orpik was seeing when he destroyed Steven Stamkos in Game 1 of the playoffs?

On a more serious note, let's spice up the All-Star game a little more. Have players challenge others to competitions. Let's see Ovechkin challenge Crosby to a shoot out contest. Let them pick their opponents for different events and hope that some fun smack talk ensues.

Clearly I will never be running or working for a league. My ideas are not very good. But the NHL needs to do something with the opportunity they have been presented, especially if the NFL misses any time. People will be frustrated with the NBA and NFL. The NHL needs to fill that void with great hockey and fun ideas to reach new fans.

Of course, with Bettman running the ship, chances are the league will somehow find a way to harm itself and turn off more people from the game. At least Campbell is gone!

Mumford and Sons - Winter Winds

Federer's time on top officially over

2011-06-30T11:00:00.000-04:00

By Jeff

If the game of tennis disappeared today, Roger Federer would still go down as the greatest player to ever play.

I never saw Rod Laver play, so Federer gets my vote. Mostly because Federer's main adversary has been perhaps the future greatest player to ever play tennis is Rafael Nadal.

Nadal has been No. 1 in the world for a while now, but deep down I thought Federer still had the edge on hard and grass courts. I fully expected him to win Wimbledon this year, not fall in five sets to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the quarterfinals yesterday.

The loss is very similar to day when Tiger Woods officially lost his place at the top and has yet to recover from. Remember the 2009 PGA Championship? That was the first time Tiger Woods lost a major when he went into the final day with the lead. Woods then got caught cheating on his wife with 23,751 different women and he has roughly had the same amount of different swings in attempts to regain his form.

Well, Federer's loss yesterday was the first time in a grand slam he led by two sets to none and ended up losing. Federer is now 178-1 in Grand Slam matches after taking the first two sets. That's an impressive record, but that one is going to be the one that represents his fall.

Now Federer's decline won't be as drastic or quick as Woods' downward spiral. No, Federer will probably have a Pete Sampras-like moment and storm through one final major. But it would be shocking if he won more than a single Grand Slam during the remainder of his career.

It wasn't just this Wimbledon match that leads me to believe Federer doesn't have the fire anymore. In last month;s French Open, he should have taken the first set from Nadal, but choked it away. In the second set, he fought to break back against Nadal, only to lose his next service game. So either Federer has lost a bit of his formerly ruthless killer instinct, or his game has declined just enough so that he can't act on that killer instinct.

It was a great run, Roger. You still have your Grand Slam quarterfinals appearances streak, but we all know that's not good enough for the man who has hats, shirts and jackets embroidered with your initials.

The Righteous Brothers - Little Latin Lupe Lu

Dupuis signing a good one

2011-06-29T14:49:00.000-04:00

By Jeff

While Pens fans are constantly debating whether to bring back Jaromir Jagr and resign Tyler Kennedy, Pens general manager Ray Shero quietly resigned Pascal Dupuis to a 2-year, $3 million deal.

The move is a great one for the Pens. They retain a versatile winger who has 35 goals combined in the past two seasons and was a vital part of the league's best penalty killing unit.

Dupuis certainly isn't a skill guy or a young guy (He's 32). He skates hard and fast, forechecks wells and doesn't take a game off. If he could hit the net more often with his slap shot he'd be a threat for 30 goals, but to say he has no control of it would be a bit of an understatement.

He clearly isn't a superstar, so why am I so excited to see him back? It's because the man works his ass off in every game. It doesn't matter what the score is, or what line who he's playing with; Dupuis is always going full throttle.

While some players would complain about being tossed around from line to line, like Dupuis did last year after Sidney Crosby got hurt, Dupuis went out and played hockey without any complaint. Whether he was on the first line or fourth, he went about his business with the same no surrender attitude.

He could have got more money on the open market (See Armstrong, Colby), but he stayed where he has won a Stanley Cup and likes the locker room. Maybe the Pens could have picked up a very similar player on the open market, or someone with more goal-scoring pedigree. And that player could have sucked and not played up to his potential like a few recent Pens pickups. With Dupuis they got a guy at a discount and they know what to expect from him.

Regardless of whether the team signs Jagr or Kennedy, fans can be happy No. 9 will be coming back for two more years.

The Byrds - My Back Pages

ERA vs. xFIP

2011-06-29T10:08:00.006-04:00

by Mike Z

Considering I throw around a bunch of these obscure stats, I've often considered posts explaining the major ones a little more. This was a little tougher than I thought because I had to find some way to make formulas sound interesting. The ERA formula is self-explanatory (earned runs/innings pitched X 9), but the xFIP one is insane [xFIP = ((FB*.11)*13+(BB+HBP-IBB)*3-K*2)/IP] and essentially miserably dry to break down all the variable. However I'll try to briefly go over what xFIP is before I go any farther.

xFIP, or expected fielding independent pitching, is a metric devised to determine what a pitcher's ERA should be, taking into account only the variable that he is theoretically responsible for. Those variables are walks, strikeouts, hit batters, home runs and innings pitched. Walks, strikeouts, and hit batters are self explanatory. The innings pitched dividend puts the calculation onto an ERA scale so you can now effectively compare the two stats.

The one major thing I want you to focus on in the formula is the (FB*.11). This is fly balls times .11, with .11 being the average home run to fly ball ratio for pitchers league wide. Without that correction, you get the calculation for FIP instead of xFIP. Home run rates for a single pitcher fluctuate wildly from year to year so (FB*.11) provides a more accurate calculation.

So now that the crash course is completed, what's a good way to compare the statistics? I decided on a correlation study as it can compare multiple data points at once and is fairly simple to follow. I compared starting pitcher win/loss percentage to ERA, and then starting pitcher wins to xFIP on a graph made by Excel and then best fit a line through the points, using the slope of the line as the read out. A slope/correlation value is on a 0 to 1 scale, for example, 0.1 being a weak correlation to 0.9 being a strong correlation. To protect myself from small sample sizes skewing my results, I took statistics for only the starters that qualified for statistical awards (about 25 starts each year) and took all data from 2008-2010, which gave me 251 data points to work with (Excel can only calculate 255 points, otherwise I had data going through 2006).

First, here's the correlation graph for W/L (X-axis) vs. ERA (Y-axis):

The correlation for this graph is 0.44, so not that strong. the greatest density of points is running right along the 3-4 range of ERA , but there are still points all over the place, which is what the correlation value indicates.

Here's the same thing using W/L vs. xFIP instead:

The correlation with this graph looks similar to the ERA comparison, but notice how the data points are much more closely scattered around the best fit line than previously. The correlation for this graph is 0.62, not strong, but much better than ERA and definitely an improvement.

So what does all this mean? This is a real quick study with plenty of factors that make it less than ideal, with using Wins/Losses the biggest gripe that I have. If anybody has an idea for a better correlation study, let me know because I saved all my data from this so that I can revisit it if I decide to do anything more in-depth with the data. This was pretty crude, but I hope it illustrates why a lot of the sabermetrics types use xFIP to gauge starting pitchers than ERA, especially when attempting to project how they'll perform for the remainder of the season.

If anybody has any suggestions for other stats they would like me to look at, leave them in the comments and I'll look at it the next time I do one of these.

Bring back Jagr

2011-06-27T13:19:00.000-04:00

By Jeff

The Pittsburgh Penguins have been exploring the possibility of bringing back former star Jaromir Jagr for the upcoming season. I'm all for it.

Of course, if you live in the Pittsburgh area and listen to Ron Cook on 93.7 the Fan, you know the old columnist doesn't want to bring back the five-time Art Ross winner and one-time Hart winner. This is because of Jagr's infamous "I'm dying alive" comment he made in regards to playing for the Pens in 2000.

You couldn't Photoshop a mullet like that.

Jagr was then traded for a bunch of scrubs and the dark ages of the Pittsburgh Penguins officially began.

That quote also led to Pens fans, myself included, hating Jagr. How dare he hate being in Pittsburgh and actually say it! It was this anger that allowed us to ignore the fact he played in 81 games, scored 52 goals and accumulated 121 points in his final season with the Pens. Jagr struggled in the playoffs that year, with just 12 points, but he made Darius Kasparaitis' Game 7 overtime goal against the Buffalo Sabres possible. It's easy to overlook, but he fought off a Sabre at mid-ice and kept the play alive.

Following this season the team was terrible. They finished last in the division and continued to trade away its core players for crappy prospects. I'd be dying alive too.

If the price is right, bringing back Jagr could be a great move. The man can score. Sure, I haven't seen him play in about three years, but it's not like he left the NHL playing poor hockey. He had a career low 25 goals in his last NHL season, but he still led the New York Rangers in goals and points. Put him on a line with Crosby or Malkin, and he should be a lock for 20 goals. Something that recently has been a big problem for Pens wingers.

The only way this move wouldn't work is if Jagr came in with the attitude that he's the star. Seeing as Jagr is 39 years old, I doubt that idea will cross his mind and he will be more than content to defer to Crosby and Malkin.

Hall and Oates - Baby Come Back

The Overbay Black Hole

2011-06-23T11:29:00.007-04:00

by Mike Z

Over the last 3 game series against the Orioles, Clint Hurdle decided to sit Lyle Overbay to help try and "reignite" him for the remainder of the season. By "reignite" him, I'm fairly sure he means to help him show up for the season. The decision came because he's now hitting .227, well below his .271 career average, as well as an OBP of .306 and SLG of .351, all being his career worsts by far. I don't think even the most optimistic fan thought he was going to hit much more than his .243 last year, but the main reason for the signing was for his his defense, with the Pirates hoping his bat would be adequate. In this post, I'm going to determine how bad his bat has been, and whether his defense good enough to keep him on the roster.

First going over his hitting, it really solidifies how bad he's been. His BABIP is .269, slightly low, but normalizing by to near .300 would only bring his average up around his .243 batting average of last year. His batted ball info indicates that he just isn't making good contact anymore, so the low BABIP may be expected. His line drive percentage is 16%, lowest of his career, and well below his 21.5% career average. His ground ball percentage is 2 percent higher than his career average and his fly ball percentage is about 4 percent higher than his career average. An inflated ground ball percentage is a great indicator that a player is no longer having good at-bats or making good contact, often a telltale sign of an aging player losing his ability.

While his hitting stats are looking horrible, his defense, the reason for his contract, has been abysmal. While he only has 6 errors for a fielding percentage of .991, this stat (like always, in my opinion) tells us nothing of how he's performed. It seems that he has little range anymore, and his UZR (Ultimate Zone Rating) seems to indicate that too. While most defensive metrics have their flaws, there is such huge drop here that it is very telling. His UZR/150 (divided by 150 to project over 150 games) is -14.1, meaning he's cost the team 14 runs, more than double his career worst, and 1 of 3 season in which it's been negative. Remember, this is a cumulative stat, so he's on pace to cost the team 24 runs. He's been a butcher in the field, and really did earn this benching.

Combining his offense and defense, his WAR (Wins Above Replacement, meaning playing a AAA player instead) for the season is -0.7. Sure that sounds bad, and for reference, that WAR is lowest in the league for all 1B, and only 4 players are worse in the entire league. So what do you you do with him? Here's a couple ideas I've thought of that are plausible.

1. Keep him on the team, but platoon him.
I don't really see this happening, and this would have been more likely if Steve Pearce were healthy. Pearce (right handed) is a career .300 hitter against lefties, and Overbay (left handed) hit .190 and .220 each of the last 2 years against righties.

2. Cut him, call up Matt Hague
I think this would be a nice move to make, but not sure how likely it really would be. Hague isn't really considered a prospect, as he's already almost 26, but he's been hitting well. His triple slash line is .312/.361/.435 this year in AAA, with 5 HR and 35 RBI in 70 games. Not too much going on there with the bat slugging wise, but he'd likely hit much better than Overbay and the Pirates will be able to find out what they have in the player.

3. Cut him, move Garrett Jones to 1B and call up Alex Presley
I listed this last because I feel like this would be the most likely to happen, and would be my preference. Sure Presley is 26, but he has flat out hit the past 2 years in AAA. This year, he's hitting an impressive .332 and slugging .506, along with 15 stolen bases. If they want to protect Presley, he's a lefty so the Pirates can continue their RF platoon if desired. Garrett Jones isn't the ideal glove at 1B, but he showed enough in the Orioles series that he could be serviceable there.

Any scenario with Overbay being cut will probably be a few weeks down the line at the earliest. They didn't cut Aki Iwamura until late June, about a month after it was obvious he couldn't play anymore and let Brendan Donnelly linger in the bullpen until the end of July. It's amazing to think how well the Pirates are doing now in the past few week having 4 or 5 automatic outs in their lineup (Overbay, Cedeno, Wood, Brown/Toreagas/McKenry) The Pirates need production from 1B if they want to continue hovering around .500 and cutting bait with Lyle Overbay will go a long way, as well as let the Pirates know in some of their younger players.

When remakes go too far

2011-06-23T11:11:00.000-04:00

By Jeff

Is it me, or has Hollywood lost all creativity?

Just look at all the movies that have been and will be released this summer. The summer schedule is filled with sequels, comic book movies and adaptations from children's books or older movies. "Inception" is the only original movie I can remember in the past year or so.

Well, I was scanning IMDB today when I stumbled on this trailer. Apparently they are remaking the dance classic "Footloose". I have a soft spot in my heart for "Footloose" for a few reasons. Kevin Bacon is awesome, Kenny Loggins was all I listened to until the 5th grade, and I can't imagine living in a town where dancing is illegal.

It stars some guy I've never seen before, a woman that looks a lot like Miley Cyrus and Dennis Quaid, who once again proves there is no role he will turn down.

These reasons allowed me to ignore how terrible a young Jessica Parker was, the absurdity of Chris Penn being in healthy shape, the whole warehouse scene where Bacon's character is so angry he has to dance it out, Bacon swinging from a random rope in said scene, and whole plot in general.

Why would Hollywood make a remake and update it with modern rap music and bumping and grinding? Haven't they already given us three "Step Up" movies?

This movie will fail. It needs to fail. But it won't. It seems like it's the uncreative movies that bring people to the movies. I'm guilty of supporting this, as I have seen many comic book movies in theaters.

Sarah Bareilles - Uncharted

Sorry, but I have more random thoughts

2011-06-20T15:26:00.000-04:00

By Jeff

OK, I am really sucking lately as a blogger. I could throw out some excuses, but really it comes down to me being lazy. Things have been, and will continue to be, hectic for me. Hopefully things will settle down soon and I will get back to the daily grind.

Until that day comes, you're going to have to settle for my sparse posts and they will most likely be reviews because I am missing a lot of stuff as they happen. Once again, I'm sorry.

The Boston Bruins won the Stanley Cup. It sucked, but I'm glad they won instead of the Vancouver Canucks. It takes a lot for me to root for any Boston teams, but the Canucks managed to do so by playing really cheap hockey throughout the postseason.

I'm happy for the Dallas Mavericks. Dirk deserved a title with the way he played this season and postseason. That's all I have to say about professional basketball.

Ali Riske had a great showing at Wimbledon today. She lost to No. 2 seed Vera Zvonareva in three sets. It was looking good in the third set, but Riske stated making a lot of errors after tying the set at 3-3. She is going to be really good, and I used to beat her when she was 9. Woo!

I never watch golf, but it was insane what Rory McIlroy accomplished this weekend at the U.S. Open. I think he broke around 12 records. I'm still not a big golf fan, but you have to respect what McIlroy did to the rest of the field.

Tiger Woods will not break Jack Nicklaus' record of 18 majors.

"X-Men: First Class" was probably the best X-Men movie yet. It had a good mix of action and plot, and the acting was very good. I'm sure people familiar with the comics will find plenty to complain about, but it was still a good movie. Kevin Bacon rules.

Attended a Phillies game in Philadelphia last week and it was impressive. The stadium was packed at 1 p.m. on a Wednesday. The stadium absolutely roared for every run they scored. It was quite the atmosphere and I'm very jealous of the team's success and fans.

Joe and I had a great discussion on the Pirates the other day. While we are happy they are around .500 (They actually went above for a day!) we are a little worried about them keeping it up. In Joe's words, the team is a house of cards. The pitching is saving their struggling lineup, but how long can they keep it up? Especially considering the team doesn't have a healthy veteran catcher right now. There could be a long losing streak in the near future for this team.

I've recently started watching "Breaking Bad". It's a good show. I'm not sure it's as amazing as critics and award shows make it out to be, but it's certainly entertaining and each episode ends with you wanting to watch the next one immediately. I like to call this the "24" Effect.

RJ already wrote a nice piece about the passing of Clarence Clemens, but I need to add my thoughts. The man was awesome and was a big reason for me falling in love with Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band's music. The epic solo in "Born to Run" and just the fun notes he played throughout "Rosalita" are what I'll remember the most.

Ryan Dunn of "Jackass" fame died in a car crash early this morning. He was 34.

Sorry to end on sad notes.

Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band - Rosalita

Missing The Big Man

2011-06-20T12:27:00.006-04:00

By: RJ

Over the weekend, saxophone player and the pillar for the wall of sound known as The E Street Band, Clarence Clemons passed away due to complications from a stroke. He was 69.

Clemons was Bruce Springsteen's main on-stage partner for nearly 40 years and his sax brought to life so many of Springsteen's songs, ranging from his signature solo in "Jungleland," to the story of the E Street Band and The Big Man in "Tenth Avenue Freeze Out" to the closing sax solo during "Thunder Road" or even the sax solo and vocals in the middle of the E Street Band version of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" (The list could go on for days.) Springsteen's bromance with The Big Man was always apparent on stage, saving him as the last of the band members to be introduced, always plugging his partner's latest exploits, saying "You wish you could be like him but you can't" and touting him as "The next president of the United States."

The Big Man was more than just an original member of the E Street Band, he was an actor (guesting on The Wire and back in the day, Different Strokes), worked with other musicians in the studio setting (Arthea Franklin, Jackson Browne and most recently, Lady Gaga's "Edge of Glory", for which he appears in the video, to name a few) and had his own band, Clarence Clemons and the Temple of Soul.

In recent years, Clemons was bothered by various ailments (knees, back) that hindered his ability to move around on stage. But Springsteen knew how much he needed his pillar on stage, so various accommodations were made, from installing an elevator near the stage entrance for Clemons to having a gigantic chair placed behind Clarence's mic stand for him to rest on songs he didn't have to play the sax for.

The loss of Clemons was felt all throughout the music community. Fans gathered at The Stone Pony, a Jersey shore music club that was a frequently haunt for members of the E Street Band. Tributes came in all forms from Bono reciting lyrics of "Jungleland" during U2's closing song at an Anaheim concert, "Moment of Surrender" to Eddie Vedder sending out "Betterman" after learning of Clemons' passing on stage at a Connecticut concert to Bon Jovi playing a cover of "Tenth Avenue Freeze Out" in Denmark.

This continued on Monday with the mainstream media. Springsteen fans Brian Williams and Jon Stewart both touched on The Big Man's passing. Williams had a three-minute segment on NBC's Nightly News to Clemons and Stewart used The Daily Show's trademark "Moment of Zen, as what he called "My moment of Zen" and showcased a clip of Springsteen introducing Clemons from the Live in Barcelona DVD released in 2003. Eddie Vedder also did an additional tribute on the David Letterman showing with the name Clarence inscribed on his ukulele during his performance on the program.

Having seen the E Street Band in concert a countless number of times and having ultimately seen Clarence's second-to-last show with the band in Baltimore in November of 2009, this loss hurts much more than when longtime E Street organist Danny Federici died in April 2008 from melanoma. Federici's passing wasn't out of the blue, where as there were reports earlier in the week that Clemons was improving after his stroke last Sunday.

It was hard yesterday not to listen to "Tenth Avenue Freeze Out" and get misty-eyed when Springsteen recites the line, "And they made that change uptown and the Big Man joined the band," followed by Clarence on the sax.

Life on E Street won't be the same without the Big Man by Bruce's side. We will miss you, R.I.P. Clarence.

Tenth Avenue Freeze Out-Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band

Jungleland-Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band

You're A Friend of Mine-Clarence Clemons and Jackson Browne

40 for 40 – Part 1 of 2

2011-06-10T11:15:00.010-04:00

by Joe Ryan

In 2010 ESPN turned 30 years old. Instead of having a surprise party or barhopping like they were 21, the actually did something worthwhile. The funded/helped produce/aired 30 documentaries chronicling some of sport’s untold but fascinating stories. The films are very well done and ESPN allowed the filmmakers to run with their own ideas. They’ve told stories that have shaped sports and how sports has shaped our society. For once, the worldwide leader did something that wasn’t shallow or self serving, and it was nice. My personal favorite was The Two Escobars; a film detailing the relationship between the world’s biggest drug lord and the Columbian National Soccer Team.

We can only hope that ESPN will do it again in 2020 and allow ten more stories to be told. Here’s what I’d like to see documented for the next go round. Obviously, the next decade will shape how we view each of these stories, but I see these five as candidates for 40 for 40.

Close to the Vest – The Build Up of Jim Tressel, the Tear Down of OSU football. Tressel was so beloved in Ohio, but he thought the ends justified the means. The film could delve into whether or not Terrelle Pryor was wrong or the system was wrong. How could Tressel ignore that many infractions for that long? Start by talking about Woody Hayes’ fall from grace. Flash back to Tressel’s trouble at Youngstown State. Dominance over Michigan and the recruitment of Pryor. Basically, turn the SI article into a movie.
Now, if OSU doesn’t miss a beat and continue to make BCS games, maybe this film doesn’t get made.

Bolt of Lightning – The World’s Fastest Man. I think Usain Bolt’s accomplishments will really come into perspective in the next decade. This guy was making the 7 other Olympians look slow, really slow. He was/is so fun to watch. What does sprinting mean to Jamaica? Accusations of doping, pushing the limits of what is humanly possible. I hope this film is made regardless if he’s still the record holder in 2020.

Pound for Pound – The Manny Pacquiao Story. Now, I don’t think Manny will be too far removed from our memories in 2020. He’ll probably be the president of the Filipinas by then. He has world championships in eight weight divisions, eight! He transcends language and culture. He’s easy to root for. He almost made people care about boxing. Did MMA’s skyrocketing popularity hurt his legacy? Does he care? Imagine if he was a heavyweight.

Big Bats, Blind Eyes – Sammy and Mark Save Baseball. 1999 was the year. MLB was still suffering from a 1994 strike that cancelled much of the 1994 season, including the playoffs. Fans were bitter. But then the magical summer of 1999 where Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire both chased the single season homerun record of 61. It lead Sportscenter just about every night. Who’s leading? McGwire hit two! Cubs and Cardinals games were the toughest ticket in the league. But then, the fall out. Accusation of steroid use. Did Bud Selig or anyone else really think they weren’t juicing? Why do we love homeruns so much? Weren’t the pitchers juicing too? Baseball promoted the shit out of these two, but then came down on them when people finally started asking, why is his head so huge? He’s how old? And hit 15 more homeruns than he ever has before?? The homeruns are gone, but the fans are back.

Seattle’s Sound – The Franchise that Raised the Bar for Soccer in America. The Sounders are average 36,000 fans per game when the league average is around 17,000. Not only are the fans there, but they marched in together, and sang in unison for 100 minutes. But how did they get there? The Sonics were taken and the city needed to support another team. How perfect was the fit between soccer-as-a-counterculture (in America) and Seattle’s residents? The management cares; their stadium was designed with a soccer pitch in mind. Other MLS franchises will have to live up to the Sounders the next decade. How far has the league come in 25 years?

That’s all for now. I’ll be back with 5 more sometime next week. Cheers.

Back with lots of thoughts

2011-06-08T10:48:00.000-04:00

By Jeff

Once again, I've become lazy with the blog. I've been freelancing, looking for jobs, looking for apartments and going on vacation, so I've been busy. But none of those are good excuses considering how many stories have been going on that demand my attention and commentary.

So here is another thoughts post.

As someone who dislikes Ohio State, it's fun to watch their football program squirm under all the problems being brought to light. Terrelle Pryor and Jim Tressel are out and there seem to be new allegations every day. This may be the cynic in me, but I'm starting to think that every big program, coach and athlete in NCAA football is in somehow violating rules. It's just a matter of catching them. SI has a great article on Tressel here.

USC was stripped of its 2004 National Championship by the BCS because the NCAA determined Reggie Bush was ineligible that year because he received extra benefits. We all knew it was coming. What's interesting to talk about is that it's not as if Bush or any other Trojans player did something to enhance their football skills. Bush took money from a sports marketer. So while the team was stripped of it's title, we all know that the 2004 Trojans were the best team in college football that year.

The Pittsburgh Pirates are playing good baseball. They recently took two of three games from the Philadelphia Phillies, are one game below .500 and are +1 in run differential. The run differential stat I think is the most important one to take away from that last sentence when you consider how bad this Pirates teams was beat on a consistent basis last season.

Let's play a game popularized by ESPN's Matthew Berry. Here are the stat lines for two NL pitchers.
Pitcher A: 2.56 ERA, 1.07 WHIP, eight wins and four complete games
Pitcher B: 2.52 ERA, 1.35 WHIP, six wins and two complete games
Pitcher A is two-time Cy Young winner Roy Halladay. Pitcher B is... Charlie Morton?

They also have identical throwing motions.

Even though the majority of the crowds were Phillies fans, it was nice to see PNC Park packed this past weekend.

I don't know anything about baseball prospects and the draft. I'm told by my Baseball America friend that Gerrit Cole could be really good for the Pirates. Cool.

Maybe it wasn't all Colin Campbell's fault after all. Well, he still sucked at his job, but clearly the NHL as a whole has no consistency with their punishments. First, they didn't discipline Vancouver's Alex Burrows when he intentionally bit Patrice Bergeron's finger. How they could rule that there was no evidence of Burrows' intent is beyond me. Burrows clearly tilted his head back so he could fit Bergeron's finger in his mouth and then bit down. Then the NHL only gave Canucks' forward Aaron Rome four games for his late, blindside hit to Nathan Horton's head. Rome had plenty of time to pull up. He started his check after Horton passed the puck, so the common "I was just finishing my check" defense is crap. Rome then left his feet and planted his shoulder into Horton's head. Contrary to what the Canucks' head coach thinks, this is exactly the type of hit the league is trying to eliminate. Rome is a scrub who recorded five points in the regular season. Horton is a vital piece of the Boston Bruins, with 17 points in this year's playoffs, including three game-winning goals. Rome should have got at least 10 games and the Canucks should be fined.

I'd like the NHL to know that I am available for employment in case they want someone with common sense in their offices. I know that's not the type of people they hire, but maybe someday that will change.

Speaking of common sense, why is it that Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are the only ones in the media that seem to have it? They are comedians, yet they provide more accurate commentary than CNN, MSNBC and FOX.

I know I'm really late on this, but "The Macho Man" Randy Savage died last month. He was one of my favorites growing up. I dressed as him for Halloween in second grade and probably annoyed my parents to death with countless impressions as I was growing up. While Savage was great in the 80's and early 90's he also turned into the kind of wrestler you get annoyed with. He was the old guy that wouldn't go away and insist on being a main eventer, even though he clearly didn't have it anymore. But that's not what I'll remember him for. I'll remember the seven flying elbow drops he put on the Ultimate Warrior in a retirement match, and yet the Warrior still kicked out. What bullshit. The Warrior sucked.

Rafael Nadal is the greatest clay court tennis player of all time. This is not a new development, but was reinforced with his sixth French Open title Sunday against Roger Federer. I never thought I'd say this, but Nadal has the potential to become the greatest player of all time.

Remember when Americans dominated the top 10 in tennis. Now we don't have a single top 10 player. Sad.

NASCAR is silly.

I just recently discovered the greatness that is FOX's "Raising Hope". The show is hilarious. The main character, Jimmy, has a one-night stand with a serial killer, who then has a baby because she thinks it will prevent them from executing her. Well, that doesn't work and Jimmy is forced ti raise the child, Hope, with his dumb parents and crazy great grandmother. It's awesome.

Erasure - Little Respect

2011 Gold Cup Preview

2011-06-03T13:14:00.008-04:00

What is it? The Gold Cup is the bi-annual, 12-team continental soccer championship for CONCACAF, which consist of North America, Central America, and the Caribbean.

Does it Matter?
Yes, why else would we be talking about it? The winner gets to compete in the Confederations Cup in Brazil in 2013. (note: it matters more every other time it's contested. this is one of the times in matters more) They will face off against the defending World Cup Champs, and the winners from Asia, South America, Oceania, Africa, and Europe. It's sort of a dress rehearsal for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. The Gold Cup gives you a chance to pull off upsets like this:

Oh, and you get continental bragging rights for two years.

Fine. When does it start?
June 8, 2011 in stadiums across the USA.

I'm intrigued...Who's playing?!?!
Group A - Costa Rica, Cuba, El Salvador, and Mexico
Group B - Grenada, Guatemala, Honduras, and Jamaica
Group C - Canada, Guadeloupe, Panama, and United States

What should we expect?
I'm glad you asked. CONCACAF is an improving region, but its teams can be categorized into three umm...categories??

The Powerhouses - USA and Mexico. These are the big boys. It would be a shock if a team other than these two wins the cup. They have more than half their players playing in Europe and should trounce the majority of CONCACAF. What up Little Pea??

The Capables -Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador, Jamaica...i guess. All these teams are certainly capable of upsetting either Mexico or the US and should not be taken lightly. They could make a run to the Final, but I still can't see them winning. Pictured: NYRB's Dane Richards

The Minnows-Cuba, Grenada, Guatemala, Canada, Guadeloupe, Panama. This is their World Cup. These guys aren't going to make a World Cup any time soon. Well, Canada might but they are still a few years away. These teams will be gunning for the teams above them, hoping to catch them on an off-night. It's their chance to gain some respect regionally.

My Prediction
I believe that it will once again come down to the USA vs Mexico in the final in the Rose Bowl. Mexico commits a harsh early foul just to up the intensity. US scores off a set piece rebound. Mexico answers quickly to tie things. Landon Donovan starts a breakout in the 89th minute. He sees Freddy Adu (Freddy Adu!?!?! isn't he like 33 by now?) streaking up the left side. One-touch, winner. Career restored. Let's go Yanks!!!

Leave your predictions, concerns, complaints, and celebrations in the comments section.

Kevin Correia: behind the W-L record

2011-06-02T10:40:00.007-04:00

by Mike Z

With the Pirates 9-3 over the Mets last night, it gave Kevin Correia his major league leading 8th win of the year. While I don't put much into the win-loss statistics for multiple reasons, it's still fun to see a Pirates pitcher leading the league in a pitching category other than losses and batting average against (cheers Zach Duke!). He's now 8-4 on the season with a 3.40 ERA, some pretty good numbers for a guy that I was worried about being a liability coming into the season. The purpose of this post isn't to determine if Correia is one of the best pitchers in the league so far (he isn't), but rather determine how much of this is a fluke and how much he can carry on through the rest of the season.

I looked at Correia's PitchFX charts, courtesy of Fangraphs, from this year with the Pirates and last year with the Padres to see if I could determine anything different between them. I have a couple theories after going through the charts and statistics and I found two game I'll use as a case study at similar times of the year with similar stat lines. The first is a Rockies-Padres game from 5/3/2010, while the second is a Padres-Pirates game from 5/4/2011. These games are taken in isolation, but each season as a whole indicated these same trends. Here are Correia's lines from each game for context.

	IP	Hits	ER	BB	SO	GB/FB/LD
5/3/2010	6	4	3	2	4	12/4/3
5/4/2011	6	5	2	2	3	14/4/1

With these lines similar, I thought they'd be perfect to compare to each other by having fewer variables, allowing me to to rely more on the Pitch FX charts. All of his game charts show essentially the same arm slot and release point, so there's no indication of him changing his delivery, but the one thing that did jump out was the horizontal break on all of his pitches.

5/3/2010

5/4/2011

Both these graphs are from the catcher's perspective, depicting horizontal movement on the X axis in relation to pitch velocity on the Y axis. A couple things jump out here. First, look at how grouped together each pitch is in 2011 versus 2010. Generally, that can mean Correia is doing a better job at controlling his pitches around the strike zone. Specifically, check out his two seam fastball first (FT=blue) In 2010, the two seam had a little more break into the hands of a right handed hitter, but the velocity was dropping close to 85 MPH for some pitches. For the game, his fastball was sitting 91, with the two seam sitting 87, a noticable difference for a major league hitter. In the 2011 graph, note how he is throwing the two seam almost as hard as his fastball. For the game, the fastball was sitting 90.7, but the two seam was at 89.1, making it harder for hitters to distinguish between the two pitches.

Also, take close notice at the curveball (CU=purple dots). He's doing a much better job of controlling his break and having it tail away from right handed hitters 5-10 inches in 2011. In the 2010 graph, the horizontal break is all over the place. What also jumped out at me with the curveball, is how many times he was throwing it. The 2010 game had him throwing 9 curveballs out of his 106 pitches, while in 2011 it was up to 15 curveballs of only 94 pitches, a much larger percentage. I found this interesting, so I checked his pitch selection for the year to determine if it's the curveball that's directing his success so far.

In fact, pitch selection seems to be the case. His use of the slider is down from 16% to 11.4% while his curveball is up from 10.5% to 15.2%. This is a sizeable jump. The sample size is still a little too small to use any of the quantitative statistics for each pitch, but his curveball is saving him an impressive 1.4 more runs this year than last, for what that's worth.

To me, it seems like his better use of the curveball is setting up his other pitches to keep batters a little more off-balance than year's past. Batters are swinging at 31.3% of his pitches outside the strike zone, up from his career average of 24%. He's kept this curveball trend up the entire season, which may help him maintain his success throughout the season. He does need to strike out more hitters, though. His K/9 is an awful 3.99 right now, with his career average being 6.38, a low number as it is. Getting a few more Ks will certainly go a long way in allowing his recent success be sustainable for the remainder of the season.

His BABIP is at .265 and his xFIP is around 4.12, so his statistics may regress backwards gradually, but that doesn't mean he cannot maintain his current level of pitching. As long as he maintains the control of his breaking pitches like he has for the first two months of the season, he'll be be one of the Pirates' better pitchers going forward. I'd expect his ERA to settle around 4 by the end of the season, but that doesn't mean it's a foregone conclusion. With the Pirates improved infield defense and Kevin Correia's improved control, he may not end the season as the league leader in wins, but that doesn't mean he won't be one of the best free agent signings for any team this season.

McCutchen: in the midst of a breakout

2011-05-26T21:08:00.005-04:00

by Mike Z

So when I decided to do a post on Andrew McCutchen, I was planning to write how I though that he's striking out way too much to begin the season, which is keeping his production down. After looking at his stats, I realized he's probably having the best season of his career. Sound weird for a guy with a batting average of .246? I'll break down what I found to try and prove that he is having a very good season so far, and that it should only be getting better.

The first thing that jumps out to expain the low batting average is his low BABIP of .259. His career BABIP over his first two years was .319, so it's reasonable to expect it to regress back over .300, causing his average to jump as well. That said, I wanted to look into his batted ball statistics to see if there is a reason why the BABIP is low. It looks like batting in the 3 spot and trying to hit more HRs has a lot to do with it. The first 2 years had a fly ball percentage of about 39% and this year it is 46.9%, which in turn dropped his ground ball percentage from 43% to 36.7% From him trying to hit for more power, he's had fewer batted balls that he hasn't had the opportunity to run out for an infield single. But has this swing helped his power output?

A great indicator for power is ISO (isolated power), which is calculated by slugging percentage minus the player's batting average. In a nutshell, it takes out singles and measures the player's ability to hit for extra bases. McCutchen's ISO is .207 , good for 5th among all CF. The leauge average this year for ISO is .137, and McCutchen's highest ISO before this year was his rookie year when it was .185, which is a huge difference.

His plate discipline has improved greatly from the beginning of the year when he struck out 27 times in April, but only 9 times so far in May. His K% is down to 17.9% which is still a tad high for him, but it's well below league average of 20.7% His BB% is a great 12.6%, 4% over league average. Combined, his BB/K ratio of 0.81 is 2nd among all CF (Denard Span leads with 10.7). He's really putting it together now. His triple slash line for May is .277/.368/.494 which is much more like the McCutchen we expect.

Switching over to his fielding, he is drastically improved from last year. Anybody who's into sabermetrics will tell you how flawed all the defensive metrics are, but UZR seems to be the most reliable, although it doesn't take into account how hard a ball is hit. Last year his UZR/150 (ultimate zone rating over 150 games) was a miserable -12.9 but this year it's a respectable 7.9, good for 10th among CF. For fun, gold glover Nate McLouth is dead last at -29.1.

Putting everything together, his WAR is 1.8, tied for 27th in the league and tied for 7th among all CF. For as much as Pittsburghers tend to say he's only having a decent season and for the few people that drive me crazy saying he won't be as good as Jason Bay (he already is). If he continues on this trend through June like he produced in May, he'll be all over Baseball Tonight and MLB Network before you know it.

Ray Lewis is crazy

2011-05-24T15:59:00.000-04:00

By Jeff

In case you missed ESPN's Sunday Conversation this weekend with Ray Lewis, here is my gift to you.

Here is an argument I had not heard before. No football this September will result in more "evil" and "crime" in our society. Why? Because people will have nothing else to do.

Really? There are other sports going on when the NFL season is happening. Also, I really don't think people will be sitting on their couches Sunday, notice there is no football, and then decide to rob someone. I'm sure there is a study out there somewhere that looks at crime rates for days local teams are on bye, but my quick Google search didn't turn anything up on the first page.

In Ray-Ray's defense, he plays in Baltimore. Crime tends to happen more there than in most places. Or he was just watching an episode of the "The Wire" and thought it was a documentary. Either way, there is some defense to what he said. But let's be honest. He's crazy.

It's not just a ridiculous statement, but look at Ray-Ray's expression when he says it. Those eyes tore through my soul. I would be amazed if Sal Paolantonio didn't crap his pants when Ray-Ray shot that glance. By the way, doesn't Paolantonio sound like it should be two separate words? Maybe he was born Sal Paul Antonio but needed a stage name. Who knows?

Girl Talk - All Day