Posted by Iroquois Plisken
Since I've got a lot of thoughts and can't pin down a topic, I'm going to throw them all out there and see what happens.
MLB - Judas Damon signs a one year deal with the Detroit Tigers, a move that makes sense, but one that fails to overwhelm. First, he's 36. Nobody post-PED-en-vogue era is going to have a career year, not to mention the inevitable padding his stats got because he was in the Yankees lineup. You've got to expect his age to catch up with him sometime. Still, a good and smart leadoff hitter will keep the Big Bopper happy (Miggy Cabrera) with the maintenance and possible exceeding of expectations in terms of R and RBI.
Second, Damon's numbers will (likely) be negatively altered by the change in ballpark. I'm expecting a reversion back a few years to his career average of about 15 HR. He also figures to have less RBI as well because of that heinous bottom of the order. Still, there's something to be said for consistency, and I'd expect to return a combination of 2004 and 2007 Damon stats, a line of something around .290, 15 HR, 80 RBI, 80 R and maybe 20 SB. That's still pretty good.
Third, his noodle arm isn't getting any better. It's never been terrific but manning LF for Detroit probably won't do him any favors. Hopefully he doesn't impact either Austin Jackson or Ryan Raburn in the quest for a better OF (I would think Mags would be the bigger opposition, at any rate). Still, Damon's lack of defense is offset by his idiocy.
NBA - Maybe there's a reason to play the rest of the games after all. The Cleve has dropped three straight since their mega-trade, including one to my favorite squadron. While this isn't any reason to freak out (it normally takes time to integrate the so-called missing piece), it's always nice to have a pleasant reminder that anything is possible in the world of sports. In the coming weeks, we should start to see teams adjust their strategy while jockeying for either lottery balls or playoff seeding, fortuitously timed with March Madness and college basketball conference tournaments.
Hockey - The United States beat Canada 5-2 in the Olympics the other day. I feel, as a pretty disinterested party in both the Olympics and Hockey, that I represent the average American, so I feel I can speak for the general public when I say, "U-S-A! U-S-A! That'll show those hosers what's what!"
However, some mere puffers are claiming this is the biggest victory since Lake Placid. Is that even remotely close to true? From what I understand, it's not like America is guaranteed a medal yet. The victory over the Pinko Commies in 1980 is one of the biggest sports events ever. Comparing this non-medal round upset of the Canadians to that game is completely and utterly blasphemous in my opinion. See, I can be overreactionary like the average bandwagon fan, too.
And finally, in the Stuff Nobody Cares About department...
It's intramural time again (at least in the warm weather states). In softball, Team Jolly Drank is 1-0 with a 13-2 victory last night. Your fearless writer has the Eli Marrero (get used to hearing his name bandied about during baseball season around here) position on lock, playing RF/C for the team and going 2-3 with 2 R. Not a bad debut, but man, am I out of shape.
Showing posts with label Sports Smörgåsbord. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sports Smörgåsbord. Show all posts
Monday, February 22, 2010
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Sports Smörgåsbord for November 19th, 2009
Posted by Iroquois Plisken
MLB - It's the MLB awards season. So far, Chris Coghlan and Drew Bailey won the ROYs, Zack Greinke and Tim Lincecum won the Cy Youngs, and Jim Tracy and Mike Scioscia won the Managers of the Year. Hard to argue with most of these choices. Your humble writer has had the privilege of seeing Greinke pitch in his high school days (he was stellar then, too) and was pretty saddened when Greinke had to leave baseball for Social Anxiety Disorder (by the way, what kind of coincidence and irony is it that the disorder can be abbreved SAD?). Seems like he's done well for himself. The only other award I truly had a slight quibble with was Coghlan over Andrew McCutcheon for NL ROY, but maybe that's because I owned McCutcheon as a fantasy player and that he was also a former UF signee.
NBA - Good God, are the Atlanta Hawks for serial? When was the last time you uttered that, or even thought that? I know that I personally have not believed that since the Hawks employed Dominique Wilkins and they had the Pac-Man esque logo. Seriously, I look at that thing now, and it's still unclear how it's a bird. I stare at the outline for hours and I st....OHHH. There it is. Took me long enough.
NFL - Speaking of legit, look at the Bengals! Sweeping the AFC North like they're a good franchise. What is really interesting, though, is this year they might have 3 teams make the playoffs. This isn't anything novel; hell, we saw it last year in the NFC South around this time (Tampa, Carolina, Atlanta), but it is something to keep an eye on. The Ravens look like they have the worst chance, but you can't really discount Flacco and Ray Rice just yet. Speaking of Ray Rice, I am pleasantly surprised with how well he has done in the NFL. I thought Rutgers ran those tires bald. Good for him. Stacy will send him his congratulatory fruit basket posthaste!
The NHL gets trumped this week.
FIFA - Some here at PLS really like soccer. I probably follow the usual American trend of getting really into it at the time of the World Cup and resolving to follow the EPL until the next day when I simply don't. Anyhow, much ado is being made about Thierry Henry's handball that saved the French yesterday. I can understand the Irish manager's (is that the proper term of art here?) reaction, but what was Henry supposed to do? This isn't golf, where Will Smith plays a stereotypical Southern black individual and reminds us that, in golf, we call the penalties on ourselves. It's vaguely reminiscent of Diego Maradona's infamous "Hand of God" that didn't get called, but it's really not Henry's job to call the penalty on himself. I think these two quotes, most of all, sum up the ridiculousness of the situation.
MLB - It's the MLB awards season. So far, Chris Coghlan and Drew Bailey won the ROYs, Zack Greinke and Tim Lincecum won the Cy Youngs, and Jim Tracy and Mike Scioscia won the Managers of the Year. Hard to argue with most of these choices. Your humble writer has had the privilege of seeing Greinke pitch in his high school days (he was stellar then, too) and was pretty saddened when Greinke had to leave baseball for Social Anxiety Disorder (by the way, what kind of coincidence and irony is it that the disorder can be abbreved SAD?). Seems like he's done well for himself. The only other award I truly had a slight quibble with was Coghlan over Andrew McCutcheon for NL ROY, but maybe that's because I owned McCutcheon as a fantasy player and that he was also a former UF signee.
NBA - Good God, are the Atlanta Hawks for serial? When was the last time you uttered that, or even thought that? I know that I personally have not believed that since the Hawks employed Dominique Wilkins and they had the Pac-Man esque logo. Seriously, I look at that thing now, and it's still unclear how it's a bird. I stare at the outline for hours and I st....OHHH. There it is. Took me long enough.
NFL - Speaking of legit, look at the Bengals! Sweeping the AFC North like they're a good franchise. What is really interesting, though, is this year they might have 3 teams make the playoffs. This isn't anything novel; hell, we saw it last year in the NFC South around this time (Tampa, Carolina, Atlanta), but it is something to keep an eye on. The Ravens look like they have the worst chance, but you can't really discount Flacco and Ray Rice just yet. Speaking of Ray Rice, I am pleasantly surprised with how well he has done in the NFL. I thought Rutgers ran those tires bald. Good for him. Stacy will send him his congratulatory fruit basket posthaste!
The NHL gets trumped this week.
FIFA - Some here at PLS really like soccer. I probably follow the usual American trend of getting really into it at the time of the World Cup and resolving to follow the EPL until the next day when I simply don't. Anyhow, much ado is being made about Thierry Henry's handball that saved the French yesterday. I can understand the Irish manager's (is that the proper term of art here?) reaction, but what was Henry supposed to do? This isn't golf, where Will Smith plays a stereotypical Southern black individual and reminds us that, in golf, we call the penalties on ourselves. It's vaguely reminiscent of Diego Maradona's infamous "Hand of God" that didn't get called, but it's really not Henry's job to call the penalty on himself. I think these two quotes, most of all, sum up the ridiculousness of the situation.
"Our minister of sport will write to FIFA...and look for a re-match."
- Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen
"Neither the French government nor the Irish government should interfere in the functioning of the international federation."
- French PM Francois Fillon
I'm nearly positive the world has bigger issues to work out than the hand of one very clean shaven footballer.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Sports Smörgåsbord for 10-26-09
Posted by Iroquois Plisken
Apologies, friends, as life caught up last week. Enough with the small talk. Let's get right into the Sports Smörgåsbord (and seeings how I haven't eaten today, I'm rather hungry).
MLB - Of course, the dominant story right now is the World Series. You can find analysis of that anywhere. A more pressing story, I feel, is the rumored return of Mark McGwire to the public sphere. This is an odd move by the Big Mac camp. How does McGwire not expect this to turn into something of a sideshow while the Media (tm) has been chomping at the bit to find this guy and ask questions about his (alleged) steroid use? Part of me is skeptical whether or not this is simply part of an image rehabilitation campaign in order to sway the HOF voters. Of course, we all know that we can simply forgive McGwire if he goes to BP and socks a few dingers.
NBA - One of the saddest days in my admittedly brief writing career happened last week when the NBA referees agreed with the NBA to end their lockout. I was researching a story and tried to include lots of juicy and salient facts about why the lockout was good for all parties involved save the actual referees. Succinctly, it would be (generally) good for the viewing audience because they would expect so little from the replacement refs that it would be par for the course if they sucked and positively stunning if they were to be any good. This, of course, would validate the public's opinion that the NBA referees are more crooked than Charles Barkley's golf shot. In turn, what's good for the gander is good for the Jew Goose, because he gets a product that was infinitely better managed than those improvident lackwits that previously ran the show. Of course, I don't think I need to explain why it would be bad for the now-active referees (lost wages, chance to be shown up without any way to respond, etc.). It truly is a shame that we were not rid of Crawford and Salvatore indefinitely, but alas, such is the state of the modern collective bargaining agreement.
NHL - Apparently, there are teams with financial problems. This guy is on the case with more details. It might just be me, but the NHL should probably contract a great amount of their teams, namely most anyone in a warm weather market. Since interest in the NHL among nonfans is at probably one of its lowest points, why not just make hockey small and ultracompetitive with a few markets? Most people have heard of too big to fail; the NHL is simply too big and failing.
NFL - As a fan of a team with a terrible record, I think one of the more interesting subplots of the NFL season so far is not the teams that are 'good', but rather the teams that are 'not good' (bad, to you laypeople). Your good teams (Indy, NE, NO, Min) have huge PF-PA spreads, but there are an alarming number of teams with generally poor PF-PA spreads, generally poor being defined as less than 25 difference between PF and PA. I realize these statements jump to perhaps unreasonable conclusions, but I would rather see dominant teams in any given season. I look forward to the first uncapped NFL season (next year?) and watching the spending frenzy that comes with the revenues from the "world's most popular sport."
Random Salient Point - Is it possible that this year in college football, instead of the supremely dominant team that everyone was predicting in the offseason, that we will see many teams with varying degrees of legitimacy make claim to being the team that should go to the Mythical National Championship Game, regardless of what the numbers geeks say? It seems like this year, more than any other year, the presence of surviving undefeated teams coupled with one-loss teams that have galvanized and played exceedingly well should stand to depose the Robespierre that is the BCS.
Apologies, friends, as life caught up last week. Enough with the small talk. Let's get right into the Sports Smörgåsbord (and seeings how I haven't eaten today, I'm rather hungry).
MLB - Of course, the dominant story right now is the World Series. You can find analysis of that anywhere. A more pressing story, I feel, is the rumored return of Mark McGwire to the public sphere. This is an odd move by the Big Mac camp. How does McGwire not expect this to turn into something of a sideshow while the Media (tm) has been chomping at the bit to find this guy and ask questions about his (alleged) steroid use? Part of me is skeptical whether or not this is simply part of an image rehabilitation campaign in order to sway the HOF voters. Of course, we all know that we can simply forgive McGwire if he goes to BP and socks a few dingers.
NBA - One of the saddest days in my admittedly brief writing career happened last week when the NBA referees agreed with the NBA to end their lockout. I was researching a story and tried to include lots of juicy and salient facts about why the lockout was good for all parties involved save the actual referees. Succinctly, it would be (generally) good for the viewing audience because they would expect so little from the replacement refs that it would be par for the course if they sucked and positively stunning if they were to be any good. This, of course, would validate the public's opinion that the NBA referees are more crooked than Charles Barkley's golf shot. In turn, what's good for the gander is good for the Jew Goose, because he gets a product that was infinitely better managed than those improvident lackwits that previously ran the show. Of course, I don't think I need to explain why it would be bad for the now-active referees (lost wages, chance to be shown up without any way to respond, etc.). It truly is a shame that we were not rid of Crawford and Salvatore indefinitely, but alas, such is the state of the modern collective bargaining agreement.
NHL - Apparently, there are teams with financial problems. This guy is on the case with more details. It might just be me, but the NHL should probably contract a great amount of their teams, namely most anyone in a warm weather market. Since interest in the NHL among nonfans is at probably one of its lowest points, why not just make hockey small and ultracompetitive with a few markets? Most people have heard of too big to fail; the NHL is simply too big and failing.
NFL - As a fan of a team with a terrible record, I think one of the more interesting subplots of the NFL season so far is not the teams that are 'good', but rather the teams that are 'not good' (bad, to you laypeople). Your good teams (Indy, NE, NO, Min) have huge PF-PA spreads, but there are an alarming number of teams with generally poor PF-PA spreads, generally poor being defined as less than 25 difference between PF and PA. I realize these statements jump to perhaps unreasonable conclusions, but I would rather see dominant teams in any given season. I look forward to the first uncapped NFL season (next year?) and watching the spending frenzy that comes with the revenues from the "world's most popular sport."
Random Salient Point - Is it possible that this year in college football, instead of the supremely dominant team that everyone was predicting in the offseason, that we will see many teams with varying degrees of legitimacy make claim to being the team that should go to the Mythical National Championship Game, regardless of what the numbers geeks say? It seems like this year, more than any other year, the presence of surviving undefeated teams coupled with one-loss teams that have galvanized and played exceedingly well should stand to depose the Robespierre that is the BCS.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
ROFLCOPTER GUEST EDITOR LOL
Now that I'm running the show (at least for the interim), let's try out a new feature. In keeping with the food theme (though you wouldn't know it from me), I'm going to start the Sports Smörgåsbord, wherein you, the reader, get a quick rundown of something that's happening from the sports that we here at PLS cover. Note that I know nothing about hockey, so reading that section will be akin to watching an infant snack on some delicious lead paint chips. Onto the buffet...
Major League Baseball - The playoffs begin today. Also, in case you missed it, last night's one-game playoff betwixt Tiggies and Twins was simply stellar baseball. There were some boneheaded decisions made (I'm looking at you, Delmon Young. Hit the cutoff man!) and plenty of strategy. Most of all, there was drama. Lots of it. I still can't figure out why Detroit chose not to try and drop a bunt. Might have won 'em the game. All's well, though. The Twins' reward is a slaughtering at the hands of the NYY.
NATION-AL FOOT-BALL LEAGUE - Tampa still sucks. Meanwhile, if the season ended today, who would be the MVP? Compelling cases can be made for a lot of players, but I still vote for Manning, P. Of course, watch Mr. Never-Beat-Florida suck out loud next week or something, like I cursed the Atlanta Braves last week. Additionally, I feel the weakest undefeated team right now has to be the NYG, simply because they haven't played anyone.
National Basketball Association - The preseason started. Go Magic. Just keep your clothes on, Dwight.
National Hockey League - The Calgary Flames got some assumedly decent position player for some assumedly worse player. They might or might not have made out on the deal. Time will tell whether or not the deal works out for one, both, or neither side.
Random Salient Point - Deion Sanders just brings trouble with him wherever he goes. First he gets Crabtree (pre-signing) tampering allegations, now he gets Dez Bryant ineligible. Guess Lane Kiffin isn't the only one who doesn't know some aspect of the NCAA rules.
Enjoy, everyone.
Major League Baseball - The playoffs begin today. Also, in case you missed it, last night's one-game playoff betwixt Tiggies and Twins was simply stellar baseball. There were some boneheaded decisions made (I'm looking at you, Delmon Young. Hit the cutoff man!) and plenty of strategy. Most of all, there was drama. Lots of it. I still can't figure out why Detroit chose not to try and drop a bunt. Might have won 'em the game. All's well, though. The Twins' reward is a slaughtering at the hands of the NYY.
NATION-AL FOOT-BALL LEAGUE - Tampa still sucks. Meanwhile, if the season ended today, who would be the MVP? Compelling cases can be made for a lot of players, but I still vote for Manning, P. Of course, watch Mr. Never-Beat-Florida suck out loud next week or something, like I cursed the Atlanta Braves last week. Additionally, I feel the weakest undefeated team right now has to be the NYG, simply because they haven't played anyone.
National Basketball Association - The preseason started. Go Magic. Just keep your clothes on, Dwight.
National Hockey League - The Calgary Flames got some assumedly decent position player for some assumedly worse player. They might or might not have made out on the deal. Time will tell whether or not the deal works out for one, both, or neither side.
Random Salient Point - Deion Sanders just brings trouble with him wherever he goes. First he gets Crabtree (pre-signing) tampering allegations, now he gets Dez Bryant ineligible. Guess Lane Kiffin isn't the only one who doesn't know some aspect of the NCAA rules.
Enjoy, everyone.
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