Baseball

Detroit Tigers fans are justifiably too excited for words about the Tigers' prospects for the 2012 season.

The Tigers added Prince Fielder to an already-strong core comprised of superstars Justin Verlander and Miguel Cabrera. RF Brennan Boesch is back, and will play right field every day. Up and down the lineup are dangerous, powerful hitters like the aforementioned Boesch, as well as SS Jhonny Peralta, C Alex Avila, LF Delmon Young and even 2B Ryan Raburn- hitters who should do well to complement the explosiveness of Cabrera and Fielder.

Continue reading "This Year's Detroit TIgers Will Not Repeat 2008"

Second baseman Brandon Inge has been placed on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to March 30th. That means he'll be eligible to play on April 14th against the Chicago White Sox in Chicago. 

Continue reading "Detroit TIgers Place Inge On 15-Day ..."

The Royals were in dire need of a utility infielder.  They did not have to look far to find one.

Yuniesky Betancourt and the Royals agreed to a one-year, $2 million contract with incentives.  If Betancourt can become a full-time player, he could be paid $2.5 million next season.

Continue reading "Betancourt Returns to Royals"

The Minnesota Twins are looking to improve their dismal starting rotation numbers in 2012.

Last season, the Twins starters combined to post the third-worst ERA (4.64), while also striking out just 617 batters in 961 innings-pitched.

Continue reading "Twins Sign Jason Marquis to 1-Year Deal"

It's time to make predictions for the NFL season. It should be a bit easier since most of the games from Week 1 are already out of the way. Also, my picks for the week were submitted before the games began, just not here.

Steelers over Titans (was submitted here prior to the game)

Seahawks over Rams

Falcons over Dolphins

Bengals over Broncos (Brandon Stokely, are you flipping kidding me?)

Vikings over Browns

Colts over Jaguars

Saints over Lions

Bucs over Cowboys (Tampa's definitely rebuilding now)

Eagles over Panthers

Ravens over Chiefs (Survivor/Lock of the week)

Texans over Jets

Giants over Redskins

Cards over Niners (San Fran is back)

Packers over Bears

Patriots over Bills

Chargers over Raiders

 

I'll look at my final results after the Monday night games are over, but those should be a couple of sure things too. Now here are my division and playoff picks for the year. Number indicates seed in playoffs.

AFC North

1 Steelers (Still the Champs)

5 Ravens (No more Rex Ryan)

Browns (QB controversy could last all year)

Bengals  (Marvin Lewis' last year with this mess)

 

AFC South 

2Titans (Running game + defense > Kerry Collins)

Colts (No more Dungy, no more dominance)

Texans (Every year a sleeper pick, every year a disappointment)

Jaguars (Maurice Jones-Drew can't play every position)

 

AFC West

4 Chargers (Another year of underachieving due to Norv Turner, no relation)

Broncos (No Cutler, no problem)

Chiefs (If they can hang with the Ravens, they can hang with this division)

Raiders (The PUNCHline of the AFC West. Ba dum shing!)

 

AFC East

3 Patriots (Brady's back, but the defense is starting to get old)

6 Dolphins (The Tuna won't let them be a one-year wonder)

Jets (Mark Sanchez will have his growing pains, but will be in the playoffs next year)

Bills (TO will provide entertainment, but that's about it)

 

NFC North

1 Vikings ( AP showed yesterday why he went number 1 in fantasy)

6 Packers (Rodgers is ready, defense is solid again)

Bears (Urlacher being out for the year is tough, too tough for the Bears to win)

Lions (Stafford starting might be the right call, but not to win games this year)

 

NFC South

2 Falcons (Atlanta will post back-to-back winning years for the 1st time in franchise history)

Saints (Brees threw 6 tds yesterday. I was right to be unhappy when I missed out on him in fantasy)

Panthers (Delhomme might be done winning games as a NFL QB)

Bucs (Already time to look towards next year)

 

NFC West

4 49ers (Decent team wins worst NFL division)

Cardinals (The second biggest hangover of the year)

Seahawks (That game was ugly yesterday. Needing a half to break away from the Rams doesn't look too good)

Rams (I'm still going to cheer for them, but in the end, another high draft pick could help. Bulger is awful)

 

NFC East

3Giants (Manning's new receivers appear to be ready to help)

5 Eagles (Probably pick them to win if McNabb doesn't get hurt)

Cowboys (Now that TO is gone, we'll see that Romo was the bigger problem all along)

Redskins (They could easily win the NFC West, this is the AL East of football)

 

I'll wait to pick the postseason until we get there. League MVP is Drew Brees.

 

Anyone who missed the US Open yesterday missed some crazy stuff. There was Roger Federer's dominating win over Novak Djokovic, including this magical shot to set up match point.

Continue reading "NFL Opening Weekend and US Open"

To compete, a baseball team needs pitching and defense. An old adage maybe, but it exists for a reason. A team that continuously gives up runs ends up yanking their starters early in games and taxes their bullpen, lessening their effectiveness over time and thereby compounding the problem over the season. Ironically, trying to keep games close hurts the team in the long run. But with one of the best fielding percentages and team ERA’s in the league, the Toronto Blue Jays are competing.

Continue reading "Why the Jays won't compete: the importance ..."

Just picture it: it’s the top of the ninth inning and the Toronto Blue Jays are holding a slim 2-1 lead over the New York Yankees. Up to bat is Derek Jeter with Bobby Abreu and Alex Rodriguez on deck. Cito Gaston, in order to shut the door on the game and the series gets on the phone and brings in the big gun, Pedro Luis Lazo, winner of two Olympic Gold medals with Cuba and current closer of the Blue Jays. And even if he gives up a run its okay, because leading off the bottom of the ninth for the Jays is Alexei Bell, who hit 30 HR with 100 RBI with Santiago del Cuba last year.

Continue reading "Part Time Jays: How to add a little ..."

I call it "Baseball Heroin," as it's all too easy to sit for hours flipping between games, immobile, helpless to the draw of constant, and constantly changing, baseball.

This year has the added bonus of being able to watch either the home or away feed for a game, so I can tailor my watching to the team I like, or switch between the two to get a different perspective on a game. This somewhat ameliorates some of the problems DirecTV has been having this year with feeds--I'm one of the many, many people who woke up at 3AM on Opening Day in Japan . . . only to find that DirecTV's satellite problems were blacking out the broadcast. A handful of games later on in the season experienced this same problem, but these problems have been by and large small ones.

Continue reading "Saturday: The Black Hole of Baseball"

Bring back day games for the World Series. Baseball's being lost to other sports, in part because kids don't watch the games (live or in person) the way they could when the games were in the daytime. Sure, ratings are higher at night, but how much does this affect ad revenue, really? And even if it does, sometimes you've gotta sacrifice the present for the future, instead of the other way around.

Continue reading "How I'd Change Baseball"

It appears that Mark McGuire and the Baseball Hall of Fame will not embrace each other anytime soon--if ever.

McGuire has the numbers, but it is all about whether he took steroids or not.  He refuses to comment on the situation in the public eye and therefore he is termed guilty.

Continue reading "Mark McGuire and the Hall of Fame"