SPORTS LIFE

Updates Coming Tomorrow

2011-06-13T00:22:00.000-07:00

Haven't wrote anything these lately, been very busy with work. I am planning on getting 2 posts out tomorrow. Hope that every one will check them out and give thoughts and opinions. and you guys know the drill

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Lebron James - The Chosen One?

2011-06-12T00:56:00.000-07:00

Lebron James has a tattoo saying "The Chosen One" across his back, he also wore the same number as Michael Jordan with Cleveland, he also did the whole intro of throwing the powder in the air, another gimmick stolen from Jordan, he declared himself 'King James', so one would be led to believe that he is the best current player in the NBA. In all round talent, he probably is, but there is one thing missing, he doesn't believe in himself. The thing with Lebron is in my opinion he is afraid of failure, whether its not wanting to deal with the media if he does fail, or if its having to deal with it himself. He is afraid, and while understandably he will never admit that, I believe it to be the truth.

I hate to take a great career so far and then pinpoint 2 games to define a player, but the Finals show true character, you're on the biggest stage and there is no hiding who you really are. In the 4th quarters of game 4 and 5, Lebron James has 2 point. No that is not a typo, he has 2 points. But it goes beyond stats. One of my favorite things to do is ask this simple question, "If someone who never watched basketball before, turned on and watched, who would they think are the best players out there?" The answer I feel I would get from this question would be (in this case) Dirk Nowitzki, Dwyane Wade but definitely not Lebron. In fact, I think even first time NBA viewers would say that, hey #6 for Miami, what's his deal? He should be shooting more, or getting to the basket more.

Maybe in Lebron's mind he thinks, if I pass and someone else misses, then it's not my fault. This could be why Lebron went to Miami with Wade and Bosh. He figures I will pass to these guys in crunch time and they should finish. Game 5 is the perfect example of why this is just bad thinking by Lebron. Wade gets hurt, is clearly no where near 100%, it was Lebrons time to shine, and sure he got a triple double, but it may have been the quietest, the most non-impactful triple double I've seen. The only reason why I or anyone else critiques Lebron so much, or has such high expectations, are for 2 reasons; 1) He brought it on himself by doing everything stated in the first paragraph and 2) he has the talent and potential to be that great.

We want the next Jordan, we want to see the greatest player right now, and whether it's fair or not, the pressure of this is on Lebron and will always follow him.

NBA Off-Season - Golden State Warriors

2011-06-09T16:13:00.000-07:00

The Golden State Warriors, where do we start? This team has been one of the most dysfunctional of all the teams in the NBA. Countless trades gone wrong, bad contract after bad contract and worst of all, this is a team which is bad BUT they are just good enough to always put themselves out of position to get a top 3 pick. In recent years the Warriors just seem to always pick between 7th and 11th. Granted they were able to get Point Guard Steph Curry 8th but still. This is a team that in the last 3 years just seems as if its been stuck in transition and just staying in that position.

Is Mark Jackson the right guy to resurrect the Warriors?

So lets take a look at whats happened this team so far this offseason. They bring in Jerry West (credible NBA guy), they hire Mark Jackson (Boom or Bust type hire) and they get Mike Malone (X's and O's guy to help Jackson). I like bringing in Jerry West, smart move by Joe Lacob to bring some more credibility to the franchise as a whole. I'm not sure how I feel about the Mark Jackson hire, I try to look at the positives: Well known and popular among NBA players which could help bring in potential Free Agents, played the PG position which is essentially the coach on the floor and he has a great Assistant in Mike Malone to help him out with strategy and game planning. This is all good and well, but then I keep coming back to the fact that he has ZERO coaching experience. Nada. Who knows how he will react, if the Warriors are in playoff contention, big game and he has to make big decisions, can he inspire the team? So many question marks. Granted it worked with the Celtics and Doc Rivers, but did you notice Rivers suddenly became a whole lot smarter when they added Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett and Rajon Rondo emerged? Hmmmm.

Andre Iguodalas presence would make perfect sense for a Warriors team severely lacking defense

So lets look at some of the things the Warriors can do this offseason to put themselves in good position going forward. Biggest question is what to do with Monta Ellis? Trade him or keep him? I love Monta, I love watching him play but I just don't think the Warriors can win with Ellis and Curry. It's time for the Warriors become a more conventional team (weird idea right?). Make the trade for Andre Iguodala and you can maybe get a pick or role player on top of Iggy. You add Iggy to drastically improve your defense, he is also decent on the offensive end, now that he realizes he should not take many 3's. That is the main trade that the Warriors do.

Nene would be a 'BIG' addition to GS. See what I did there?

In Free Agency I want the Warriors to make a big splash and the main targets won't be travelling far. I want them to pursue both Aaron Afflalo and Nene from Denver. Afflalo is very good on the offensive end and an underrated defender. Nene along with Marc Gasol are the prized Free Agent Centers. I see ZERO chance of Gasol getting away from Memphis. Nene is an active big body in both the defense an offensive ends. The Warriors current Center Andris Biedrins has become soft to the point that he is afraid of contact because of how bad his free throw shooting is. I do think his career can be salvaged, and I do think the Warriors can and will trade him, even if they will be eating up some of his contract. If Gilbert Arenas, Corey Magette, Hedo Turkoglu and Rashard lewis can get traded, so can Biedrins.

These moves give the Warriors a much more balanced and conventional starting 5, along with having some real nice depth too. Starting 5 of:
PG - Steph Curry
SG - Aaron Afflalo
SF - Andre Iguodala
PF - David Lee
C - Nene

With role players including: Excellent 3-point shooter Dorrell Wright, good young defender in Ekpe Udoh, solid role player in Reggie Williams. Plus the Warriors have the 11th overall pick and can maybe select another big guy to help out on defense. I do think the Western Conference is gonna be weaker in coming years. Spurs are old, Mavs are old, who knows how Lakers do without Phil Jackson. I think the 7th and 8th seeds are absolutely attainable with solid moves including the ones I made in this mock offseason.

Let me know what you guys think and give me feedback and what not. Check back regularly for updates. SPREAD THE WORD

MLB Weekly Power Rankings

2011-06-09T01:06:00.000-07:00

Here again is another issue in my weekly MLB Power Rankings. This weeks version will be shorter than previous weeks but will certainly get the job done. In my rankings I take overall record and how well the team has played recently in compiling my Power Rankings. Here goes, starting with the top 5:

Top 5
1 (1) - St. Louis Cardinals (37-26) - What can I say about the Cards, Pujols is back to being Pujols, Matt Holliday coming back from injury soon, pitching has been great. Not much else to say except I'm glad my Giants don't play them again and they are right now, the best team in Baseball.

Gonzalez and Crawford have been red hot for Boston

2 (NR*) - Boston Red Sox (35-26) - Red Sox have won 5 in a row, have beaten the Yanks in New York in back to back games, Carl Crawford has come to his usual form and Adrian Gonzalez has been better than advertised. Also they have the best pitcher in the AL with Josh Beckett.

3 (NR) - Detroit Tigers (33-28)- The hottest team in the Majors. 8-2 over their previous 10 games and have their sights firmly set on taking over the Indians who have come way back down to Earth. This team can hit, and the pitching has improved significantly.

4 (NR) - Texas Rangers (35-28) - They have been getting great pitching recently out of Alexi Ogando, CJ Wilson and Colby Lewis. They have a legit closer in Feliz, and we all know how well this team hits. 7-3 in their last 10. The Rangers are gonna open up a gap at the top of the AL West.

5 (NR) - San Francisco Giants (35-27) - The Giants have been without star catcher Buster Posey for 2 weeks. Giants lost 3 of their first 4 games after the injury, since then they (we) have won 7 of 10 and are eagerly awaiting Pablo Sandovals return to send Tejada to the bench.

Bottom 5
26 (30) Minnesota Twins (23-38) - The Twins have gone 6-2 since last weeks rankings, they are playing better for sure. Hopefully they can get Morneau going and Mauer back soon. Their overall record is what keeps them in the bottom 5. They may not be here next week.

27 (28) Houston Astros (24-38) - They are showing some signs of life, a red hot Cardinals team with Pujols hitting like crazy is tough for any team to stop. Will they trade Hunter Pence in July?

28 (27) Kansas City Royals (26-36) - 3-7 in their last 10 games, a pathetic 6-16 road record. Imagine where they would be without all those walk off wins.

29 (29) Chicago Cubs (24-36) - They have gone 1-5 since last weeks rankings, pitchers can't pitch, problems all over the clubhouse and have such an overrated and overpaid lineup.

30 (NR) Oakland Athletics (27-36) - They have lost 9 in a row, they can't hit and have injuries all over their good pitching staff. Yikes.

Oakland A's have found Wins hard to come by the last 2 weeks

That concludes this weeks rankings. Be sure to check out the blog daily, give feedback, and tell me what you think of my rankings and where you might make changes. Power Rankings will be back next week. Until then, enjoy the other posts I will be making.

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* NR = Not Ranked Top 5 or Bottom 5 last week

Lebron James - Where for art thou?

2011-06-09T00:11:00.000-07:00

Tuesday the 7th of June, I get off work and quickly rush home to watch game 4 of the NBA Finals. I tune in with 7 minutes left in the 4th quarter, I see the score is close and am prepared for an excellent finish. As far as I'm concerned, if the game is close, all you need to watch is the final half of the 4th quarter.

So there I am, the game is going back and forth, the Heat stretch out a lead, then Dallas gets it close, all of a sudden there is 2 minutes left in the game. It was great fast paced action, despite both teams playing some sloppy basketball and missing easy shots, the tension is palpable. Then at the 2 minute mark, it dawned on me, I couldn't recall hearing or seeing much of Lebron James. So I make it my business to focus more on Lebron and see what he is doing. What did I notice? Not a whole lot really. I saw a guy who wanted no part of the ball, look I get it, he was having a bad game, his shot was way off and hey, everyone has a bad night, right? Sure, but this is the guy who is meant to be the next Jordan, the guy even Scottie Pippen hailed Lebron as possibly the greatest player of all time. I just don't understand what Lebron was doing, why not take the ball, drive the lane and get a foul call? or kick it out to shooters like D-or Chris Bosh or Mike Miller? Lets face facts here, if Lebron didn't wanna hurt the team by taking shots, and didn't wanna be part of the offense, then why are you out there?

Lebron isn't Jordan, lets get that out of the way, but that isn't the point I'm trying to make. Lebron is a superstar, and he became shy and lacked confidence when so many others thrive in that role. I used to think guys like Skip Bayless were too harsh on Lebron, but now I get it. Lebron James is to Basketball as Marty Schottenheimer was to coaching Football. Lebron will give you a great regular season, and like many of Schottenheimers teams, Lebron just has so much talent that sometimes even when he lacks confidence and becomes conservative he will still get the job done to a certain point, but he just doesn't have the 'it' factor in crunch time. Even his defense in crunch time of game 4 in this series was pathetic.

Trust me Lebron, all Miami Heat fans had to facepalm watching your performance in Game 4, only mustering 8 measly points.

Let me set the scene, 25 seconds left in the game and 19 on the shot clock, Dirk has the ball and is guarded by Udonis Haslem at the top of the key, Dallas up by 1. Dirk makes an amazing play and let me tell you how. Common sense says that Dirk will hold the ball until the final second of the shot clock, based on Dirk's tendency, he will take the ball to the left, and then go for a fade away jumper. What does Dirk do? Catches Haslem napping and takes the ball to his right with 10 seconds left on the SC, gets by Haslem with relative ease. If you look closely at this play, you see Lebron have a chance to make a play, heck even foul him if you have to, but Lebron stands there, watches Dirk go by and looks helpless, while teammate Dwyane Wade seems to dart half way across the baseline to make a great effort to at least try and stop Dirk.
Lets not forget Lebron was only able to come up with 8 points, while Wades lowest scoring output on Basketball's biggest stage is 22.

No way does Jordan shrink in these moments, no way does Jordan disappear for the final 7 minutes of a close 4th quarter game, especially a finals game, no way does Jordan give up an easy lay up. Lebron will never be Jordan, I don't care about size or raw talent, that's only half the battle, Lebron quits on the Cavs in the playoffs against Boston, disappears here. He doesn't belong in the same conversation as Jordan ever.

So I guess I kind of trailed off topic here, I tend to just start writing and see where it takes me. I really just can't wrap my head around Lebron. It will be a shame looking back and have so many "what if" questions. Such a shame.

Input from YOU!

2011-06-08T19:19:00.000-07:00

So I'm looking for as much input as I can get with my blog. Feel free to leave suggestions to improve the blog, make it more popular, what I should write about, what polls I should put up and I am closing in on 1000 hits. May even look to give out something to the 1000th visitor. Exciting times here at the Sports Life. You guys know the drill, visit daily, and spread the word!

Whats to Come

2011-06-08T19:15:00.000-07:00

So this week I will be updating my blog some more. Some of the things to look forward too include: my latest MLB Power Rankings, my thoughts on the NFL Lockout and updates on the 49ers. Also the impact for the San Francisco Giants getting Pablo Sandoval back and the great play of rookie Brandon Crawford. I also plan to give my thoughts on both the NBA and NHL finals. With my predictions on who is going to win each series and they are both tied 2-2 after 4 games played. Gonna be a fun week. Be sure to check in regularly, leave comments, vote on the polls and spread the word!

Underrated Starting 9 - American League

2011-06-07T22:44:00.000-07:00

So I previously wrote on the Underrated Staring 9 in the National League link , now I'm turning my attention to the American League. Again the aim here is to get my readers to find out more about players they don't know or know very little about. The rule I'm using is the player I pick at a position must make most if not all starts at that position. Lets get this started.

Pitcher - Jered Weaver, Los Angeles Angels - Weaver has been in a word 'Dominant' this year, not often a name you hear with the elite pitchers in the AL, but he has been playing that way. Weaver has a 2.14 ERA, 0.95 WHIP and 7 wins already. His ERA and wins are 2nd in the American League only to Josh Beckett and his WHIP is also 2nd. Weaver is right in line for a potential Cy Young this year if he can keep up his already impressive season. At the age of 28 expect Weavers name to be mentioned in Cy Young candidacy for the next 5 years.

Don't be surprised to see Weaver be in contention for the AL Cy Young.

Catcher - Alex Avila, Detroit Tigers - The young 24 year old is having his coming out party this year, with significantly less at bats than most other hitters, Avila is already hitting 9 Homers, with 32 RBI and a .351 OBP. If you take these numbers and project them for the rest of the season, expect him to hit between 20-25 HR's, 85 - 90 RBI and is currently at a .289 AVG. Russell Martin of the Yankees is having a resurgence, but needs to improve upon that .238 AVG.

1st Base - Paul Konerko, Chicago White Sox - Konerko is one of the most reliable consistent hitters in the game, just one of those guys who's not flashy in any way but always puts up big numbers. This year he is on pace for a 36 HR and 121 RBI season with an impressive batting average floating between .315 and .320. Again I think playing for the White Sox, a mostly non-playoff team in recent years and being one of the most normal, non-flashy guys in baseball is a reason he gets overlooked and underrated so much.

Paul Konerko has been the one consistent piece of the White Sox team.

2nd Base - Howard Kendrick, Los Angeles Angels - Maybe its the team being stranded in mediocrity and out in Anaheim, maybe its the total East Coast bias of ESPN, but Angels players get so overlooked. Not only Weaver but Kendrick has been having one of the best seasons for a 2nd basemen in the Majors. He has solid power numbers, his RBI numbers should definitely increase, but his main weapons have been his defense and AVG. Can't ask for much more then that.

Short Stop - Jhonny Peralta, Detroit Tigers - Peralta is the best SS you've never heard of. Guys like Tulowitzki and Reyes seem to hog the attention at his position and Miguel Cabrera and Verlander on his team but Peralta is having himself the best year of his career. Right now Peralta is projected to finish with 22 Homers, 86 RBI's and is currently hitting for high average too (.314). With solid defense and these numbers, thats excellent production for your Short Stop.

3rd Base - Wilson Betemit, Kansas City Royals - Overall 3rd Basemen have really disappointed this year in the American League, A-Rod, Youkilis, Beltre and Longoria have all not played up to expectations. This are all the big name underperforming 3rd basemen. Betemit is earning 1/25th of what A-Rod is earning, and keep in mind Betemit plays better defense, hitting for almost 20 points higher in average, and if Betemit played in the Yankee lineup would have just as much RBI.

Left Field - Alex Gordon, Kansas City Royals - Another Royal makes the list here. Was very tempted to go with Corey Patterson who is extremely underrated playing up in Toronto in the shadows of Jose Bautista, but Gordon is just as underrated and is putting up much better numbers:
Patterson: .281 AVG, 5 HR, 28 RBI and .311 OBP
Gordon: .280 AVG, 7 HR, 31 RBI and .350 OBP

Center Field - Adam Jones, Baltimore Orioles - Cursed with playing for a bottom feeder team that hasn't much chance competing with the likes of Boston and New York, Jones is still a great player. Recently Jones made one of the best defensive plays you will ever see, think Willie Mays and add in being able to brace himself for the wall too. Besides for awesome defense, lets not forget his numbers this season so far, 8 HR's, 32 RBI's and a .301 AVG.

Adam Jones' unforgettable catch, 1st picture during the catch and 2nd picture (with footprints in wall) after

Right Field - Jason Kubel, Minnesota Twins - Most casual baseball fans wouldn't have heard of Kubel (myself included), then you go and check out his stats and they are so much better than you'd expect. Often when people think of the hitters for the Minnesota Twins, the only guys they can come up with are Morneau and Mauer. But Kubel has been just as good as any of those guys. Kubel on one of the worst teams in baseball has a projected statline to finish the season with 14 HR's, 82 RBI's and a .310 AVG. Great numbers for a guy you would never have heard of.

I wanna say that half the players on this list are guys I never heard of, the other half I was shocked when I saw just how good they have been doing. This is my list of the most underrated players in the AL, I intentionally left off the DH. Not a fan of the DH at all.

Reviewing the Day in Sports

2011-06-06T21:28:00.000-07:00

What a busy Monday in Sports, you don't hear that too often, but today was jam-packed full of action. From the Stanley Cup Finals, NBA Head Coach move and a bunch of Baseball, I'd say that is a great day. Lets get this started

NHL Stanley Cup Finals
The Boston Bruins were down 0-2 in the series to the Vancouver Canucks, I love hearing all the sports radio talk about how the series is over blah blah blah. Well guess what? Boston comes in today and kicks the Canucks ass 8-1. This game looked like it would be another nail-biter after the 1st period was scoreless, but then it was all Boston. By the end of the 2nd period the game was essentially over as the Bruins scored 4 goals. I was extremely glad to see the Bruins get back 1 game in this series. As I wrote in my post "NHL's Time to Shine" I really think Hockey needs an exciting 7 game series to get momentum going in to next year. I was glad also because I do have a soft spot for the Bruins, as much as people would say that all 7 games need to be close, I disagree, I think a blowout game like this can be great. It brings a lot of National attention when you hear a score of 8-1 in the Finals, people will come flocking to check it out when they hear these kind of scores.

Expect an action packed 7 game series between the Boston Bruins and Vancouver Canucks

Going forward in this series I do expect nothing less than an exciting 7 game series. I do think that the Bruins will eventually come back to win this series. Timmy Thomas looked great in goal tonight and can build on this and get hot, whereas Roberto Luongo, uhmm not so much. Hockey comes down to having a hot goalie and being able to eek out some goals. Boston to me has the advantage at goalie, while the Canucks have some great players in Kessler, and the Seguin twins, I think Boston will be able to get enough out of enforcer and talented Zdeno Chara, also guys like Mark Recchi and David Krejci are more than capable of getting the job done. Lace up your skates, put on pads, because the next 4 games are gonna be a heavy hitting, bumpy ride.

Mark Jackson lands with Golden State
The ESPN game announcer and former NBA Point Guard Mark Jackson has become the next Head Coach of the Golden State Warriors. Just when I thought the Warriors couldn't get any dumber, they go and TOTALLY REDEEM themselves. Well I don't know if I will go that far but I recently watched Dumb and Dumber and what to put that line in my blog somewhere. I really think this is a wait and see hire. You can look at the good and bad points to hiring a guy like Mark Jackson, he doesn't have any Head Coaching or Assistant Coaching experience in the NBA, however, he was able to play the PG position extremely well, which is essentially the coach on the court. One thing I did like hearing from the Warriors brass was that they are committed to surrounding Jackson with a great supporting cast.

Does Mark Jackson have what it takes to be the Warriors Head Coach?

The Warriors seem determined to lure Mike Malone from the New Orleans Hornets to add to Jacksons staff. A guy the Lakers are reportedly very interested in and have already interviewed. Mark Jackson will do a great job with both Steph Curry and Monta Ellis (assuming neither are traded), and according to ESPN experts, expect the Warriors to play much better defense with an up-tempo offense. I like the sound of that. While I am a bigger Bulls fan, the Warriors being the local team are definitely my Western Conference Team. I want to see the Warriors be competitive, I want the Bay Area to have a winning Basketball team but changes not just to the coaching staff need to be made.

Look, I as much as anybody love watching the Curry - Ellis combo but I just don't know if it will ever work. This will be the first challenge of the owners and new coaching staff, what to do with these two players. Do you keep both and hope they can form a winning Guard tandem? Or try and build a more conventional team? I will touch on my opinions of this in a future post. Leave comments on what you guys would wanna do with the Warriors if you were in charge?

MLB
Here come the Detroit Tigers! The Cleveland Indians had a great great start to the season, and by all means are still having a good year being 8 games above .500 with a record of 33-25. However, their once huge lead in the AL Central is all but gone now that the Tigers have been playing excellent ball. The Tigers crushed the Rangers today 13-7 lead by Brennan Boesch who has 2 HR's, 5 RBI and went 5-6, to improve their record to 32-27. The Indians once had an 8 game advantage, it's now down to 1.5 games and this will be an exciting race all through the Summer. In other news the Milwaukee Brewers just completed a 4 game sweep of the Florida Marlins in Florida. Zack Greinke had an outstanding performance for a Milwaukee team which has been red hot as of late.

Tim Lincecum is a World Champion, 2 time Cy Young Winner and now has 1000 K's in less than 5 full seasons. Impressed?

Would like to end off by Congratulating Tim Lincecum by getting his 1000th career Strike Out today. The Freak joins some big company by getting his 1000th K, in only his 5th year in the Majors, and we all know he has a lot more of those to come, not only this year but for the foreseeable future. Matt Cain is only 31 K's away from reaching 1000 himself, next up for the Giants will be Jonathan Sanchez who will probably get there by the end of the 2012 season. That's all for now, I am out.

Thanks for reading, be sure to check in on the blog daily, vote on the polls, add comments, follow the blog and also spread the word. I appreciate all the help.

Underrated Starting 9 - National League

2011-06-06T00:56:00.000-07:00

The aim of this post is to highlight who I think are the most underrated players in the National League and form a starting team with them. I hope that by reading this, you guys will look at some players you may not have heard of and realize how good some of these guys are. The 1 rule I will use for this: I will keep players to the position they make most of their starts at, (example: No Pujols at 3B). Alright here goes, and let me know what you guys think in the comments section or at my twitter (twitter.com/kalen182)

Pitcher - Ryan Vogelsong, San Francisco Giants - I know I know, you are saying, Ryan who? Well let me enlighten you, Vogelsong was drafted by the Giants, then traded to the Pirates as part of the deal that sent Jason Schmidt to the Giants, injuries and lackluster performance stunted Vogelsong in Pittsburgh. Was essentially out of Baseball, then gets a call from the Angels for their minor league team, then in the offseason the Giants bring in Vogelsong. He had a strong spring training, and Barry Zito going down early in the season opened the door for Vogelsong. And how has he done since? He has pitched 53.2 innings, an ERA of 1.68 and a WHIP of an insane 1.04, with a record of 4-1. I just had to go with Vogelsong because, not only am I a homer, but the odds of him pitching this well was so incredibly unlikely. He truly is one of the better stories in Baseball today.

Ryan Vogelsong of the San Francisco Giants has maybe been the biggest surprise of Baseball.

Catcher - Ramon Hernandez, Cincinnati Reds - There are some great catchers in the National League (Yadier Molina, Brian McCann, Buster Posey), there are some great hitters for the Reds (Joey Votto, Jay Bruce, Brandon Philips), what do these 2 lists have in common? They are both missing the name Ramon Hernandez. You will be shocked when I tell you his numbers; .320 AVG, .385 OBP, 7 HR, 17 RBI and a crazy .541 Slugging. He has 60 less AB's then most of the other top catchers, which is why his RBI numbers are lower. He is a 13 year veteran and knows all the ins and outs of the position. Having Votto and Bruce in the lineup helps, but don't discount how good Hernandez has been this year.

1st Base - Gaby Sanchez, Florida Marlins - Where do the Marlins keep coming up with these guys? Miguel Cabrera a few years ago, Hanley Ramirez, Mike Stanton and now Gaby Sanchez. This year Gaby has exploded on to the scene and is destined for a trip to the All Star game, if not this year then soon. .321 AVG, .394 OBP with 10 Homers and 38 RBI. He provides unexpected power and can hit the long ball off the best pitchers in the game. He along with Stanton have really picked up the slack, while Hanley Ramirez has been struggling early this season.

Florida Marlins 1B Gaby Sanchez is just another hitter to come up from the Marlins Farm System

2nd Base - Freddy Sanchez, San Francisco Giants - The Giants have had an unfair amount of injuries to key hitters (Buster Posey and Pablo Sandoval), since these guys have gone down hurt, Sanchez has been the most consistent hitter. In an offense that really lacks....good hitters, Freddy has provided the spark to get the key hits to win close games. So far with almost no help in the lineup Freddy has batted a very respectable - .294 AVG, 3 HR, 23 RBI and a .335 OBP. One of the things that most often gets overlooked with Freddy is his defense, he plays great defense, it doesn't always look good but he gets the job done.

Short Stop - Ryan Theriot, St. Louis Cardinals - One of the better lead off men in the game, he spent 5 years with the bad luck Cubs, now with St. Louis he has exploded. Batting .300 and playing very underrated defense. Theriot has come up with clutch hits when the Cardinals need it most, which they have since Pujols started out slow and Holliday being injured.

3rd Base - Ryan Roberts, Arizona Diamondbacks - The D-Backs, have been one of the biggest surprises this season, and one of the reasons for this has been the play of Roberts. It was a tough decision between Roberts and Chase Headley of the Padres, but Roberts has just slightly lower AVG and OBP, but hits for much more power (8 HR's for Roberts and 1 for Headley) and strikes out less too (30 for RR and 41 for CH). The D-Backs will need him to keep playing well if they wanna compete with the SF Giants going forward in this season.

Left Field - Martin Prado, Atlanta Braves - Prado is a guy who gets overlooked way too regularly, one of the better defensive outfielders in the game and has been hitting for surprising power this season. If you project his current numbers to 162 games, he would hit for 22 HR's and 89 RBI. Not bad from a guy who gets forgotten so often, that is until your team plays the Braves.

Center Field - Andrew McCutchen, Pittsburgh Pirates - Although he is about the only guy people know from the Pirates, a lot of people barely know the Pirates exist. 18 straight losing seasons will do that to a team. However the Pirates have been hovering around .500 and that has largely been down to the play of McCutchen. While the Pirates have been pitching better (Kevin Correia and Charlie Morton), McCutchen is the spark plug to the hitting. Of any of the consistent starters, he (McCutchen) has the highest AVG, OBP, HR's and Hits. Only Neil Walker has more RBI. Pretty impressive.

With the weight of a struggling franchise on his shoulders, Andrew McCutchen has been a 'hit' in Pittsburgh becoming the face of the franchise.

Right Field - Hunter Pence, Houston Astros - The fact that Pence plays for the bottom feeder Houston Astros is why he doesn't get the recognition he deserves. Pence is quietly having a great season, batting: .310 AVG, 8 HR, 44 RBI and .353 OBP. Not only this but Pence is extremely athletic and has great baseball instincts, which makes him an excellent fielder and baserunner. Any team would be lucky to have a guy like Pence manning RF.

Random Facts I discovered after picking all the players: 3 players are named Ryan, 2 have the last name Sanchez and all of them (yes ALL of them) bat right handed. None of them are even switch hitters.

I didn't make this team to be an effective lineup, just the players at each position who I feel are the most underrated. Of course this is just my opinion, and I look forward to hearing all your guys' thoughts on my starting 9 and who you guys would go with.

American League Version coming soon.

Favorite Athletes from My Childhood

2011-06-05T00:07:00.000-07:00

Sports has been my life for as long as I can remember, whether it was watching the 49ers on Monday Night Football with my Dad, going to Giants games in Candlestick Park with my Friends and Family, staring in awe as Michael Jordan would seem to do the impossible or playing Soccer and Little League, sports has dominated my life and I love every minute of it. So I am gonna talk about my favorite players from the sports I watched as a kid. Lets do this.

Baseball

WILL CLARK 1B of the SF GIANTS

Will Clark 1B - San Francisco Giants - Will "The Thrill" Clark will probably always be my favorite Giant of all time. Bonds has come very close, and no doubt Tim Lincecum and Buster Posey will come close too, but #22 is my guy. There was just something about him, he had that sweet sweet swing, was the first player I got to see live who was a superstar in not only my eyes but in the Baseball world. He was the guy who I would pin my hopes on to come up with the big hit, or make a diving play at first. I remember trying to imitate Will's swing playing Little League but never getting it right, and of course I wore #22. The great thing about Will Clark and Baseball, was that they looked like every day guys (stress the past tense), players back then didn't have bulging muscles, heck some of them even wore glasses! Seeing these kind of players made me think I could be one of them. Will Clark will always be the guy I thought I could be, and that's a pretty awesome feeling.

Football

THE FAMOUS FUNKY CHICKEN DANCE

Merton Hanks FS - San Francisco 49ers - Yeah there were a ton of Hall of Fame players I could have gone with here, Rice, Montana, Young, Lott, Craig, some LEGENDARY names, and I course I loved every last one of them, but Hanks was always a personal favorite, with Tom Rathman coming in a close 2nd. While Rice and the other Hall of Famer's were the most talented of the bunch, they were not flashy, business like even, but they got the job done, Hanks also got the job done, but he did it while maintaining character. Not a big guy but he could lay the wood if needed, and of course Hanks is known for the famous funky chicken dance for whenever he would score a TD on an interception or fumble return. Hanks is one of the more underrated and forgotten men of the great 49er teams. While his career was short lived (9 seasons), he made quite an impact, Superbowl winner and 4 time Pro-Bowler. Hanks had the personality fans loved and had a great game to back it up.

Basketball
Scottie Pippen SF - Chicago Bulls - As much as I would love the best players on my favorite teams, I guess I always was a bigger fan of the Robin to the teams Batman (sidenote: Batman is way more awesome than Robin). Sure I loved Jordan as much as any other kid growing up in the 90's, but Pippen was always my favorite. Always got overlooked despite being a great player, he even led the Bulls when Jordan went on sabbatical and did a more than admirable job at that. I definitely don't agree with Pippen's recent comments regarding Lebron being a better player than Jordan, he will always have my respect. He despite being a Hall of Fame caliber player understood, that Jordan was the guy for the Bulls. I am a big fan of ESPN's Bill Simmons, and in his book of Basketball he references "The Secret". This involved putting the team first, and knowing your role on the team. Pippen "got this" and knew that he was the secondary player and that in crunch time, just give the ball to Michael.

Soccer
Enrico Chiesa - Parma - Manchester United and Parma were my 2 favorite teams growing up. I have about 10+ players from Man United who I loved, but for Parma it was always all about Chiesa. Often overshadowed (seeing a theme here?) by other great strikers in the Italian Soccer League (Serie A) but was so extremely talented in his day. Chiesa is a personal favorite, not many casual soccer fans will know of him or too much about him. I guess I can be a Soccer snob when it comes to this.

Formula 1
Michael Schumacher - Benetton/Ferrari - Yes back in the day I was a HUGE fan of Formula 1, and instantly Schumacher was my favorite. I loved the rivalries with Mika Hakkinen, Damon Hill, David Coulthard, Jacques Villineuve etc etc. Having spent a great deal of my growing up in Ireland, Formula 1 occupied many of my Saturdays and Sundays. The qualifying on Saturday and race on Sunday. Even I have to admit that it did get boring for a few years where Schumie just seemed to win every race with ease, but there is nothing better than two cars going 175+mph trying to do everything they can to get by one another on crazy turns on the creative racetracks. In recent years I have definitely lost track of F1, which is a shame, even Schumacher returning wasn't enough to get me interested again. My advice to people not familiar with the sport is to watch the Monaco Grand Prix. Intense action, any tiny mistake and you are done, Monaco is certainly a non-forgiving race track but it is essentially the highlight of the race year and always worth the watch.

Michael Schumacher - Greatest Formula 1 driver of all time.

Wrestling
Bret "The Hitman" Hart - What kid growing up in the late 80's or 90's didn't love wrestling? I loved the Sharpshooter, I loved the "Best there is, best there was, best there ever will be", and what I loved was that he was never the biggest wrestler, but always put up a good fight and held his own.

These are some of my favorite athletes from my childhood, post comments on who your guys' favorites were when you were younger. Would be interested to get some answers and feedback from the readers.

NHL's Time to Shine

2011-06-04T22:32:00.000-07:00

Many die hard Hockey fans often ask the question, "Why is Hockey not more popular in the US?" My answer to this question was always something along the lines of, people lead busy lives, after Football, Baseball and Basketball, there just isn't enough time to get in to more sports. This in my opinion also explains why Soccer and NASCAR haven't taken off in the US. Easier access to these sports via the internet or increased cable access has raised their popularity, but are still dwarfed by the "Big 3" (NFL, MLB and NBA). The NHL has the most potential for expanding significantly, the best Hockey players in the World play nightly in various arenas around the US and Canada.

Just some of the Superstars in the NHL

The NHL has been offered a golden opportunity with the NFL currently locked out, and the NBA destined for a lock out which is meant to be as bad if not worse than the current NFL lock out. Baseball season would be all but over when the Hockey season comes around again too. So this may be the most important Summer for Hockey in recent years. Hockey must be extremely pro-active in establishing itself for the new season. Promotion of the biggest stars (Ovechkin, Crosby, etc etc), put on a bunch of events where fans can meet the players, get the games on primetime and putting in a huge effort to promote Fantasy Hockey worldwide. A huge contingent of the players are European, the NHL should look in to having some games played across various locations in Europe, where Hockey is extremely popular.

Hockey is best experienced live, the main goal of the NHL should be to get new people to come to games, by doing this you can convert many people to Hockey fans. I myself never cared much for Hockey until I went to see the Boston Bruins take on the Ottawa Senators in downtown Boston at the Garden, in the Spring of '09. Being at an actual game was one of the greatest sporting experiences of my life. The crowd especially in Boston go crazy for their teams, the atmosphere was infectious, and I couldn't help but get off my seat and shout at every crushing hit, jump up in excitement when Boston scored and shout and root along with everyone else there. The experience was just awesome. The next best Hockey experience was watching the Finals of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. USA vs Canada Final, USA scored with less than a minute left to tie it up and take it to overtime, where Canada eventually scored for the win. That may have been one of the most action packed finishes to a game that I have seen in years.

Ryan Kessler's goal in the final minute on Canadian Roberto Luongo was one of the best sports experiences I have seen

What are the most exciting 5 minutes in Sports? For me, it's in Hockey, the final 5 minutes in a tie game, where the action is so back and forth, fast and furious, that you almost can't contain your excitement. Then comes that slapshot, the puck moving so fast you can't see it, until it hits off the back of the net and you hear the horn. Everyone screams in happiness and the players throw off their gloves and you watch the replay over and over in amazement. Don't get me wrong, I love the 9th inning in Baseball, I love the 2 minute drives in football and I love the the anxious final minutes in Basketball, but there is just something about the ending to a Hockey game which is unmatched. The only problem? People don't know about it.

Hockey must do a better job of making the people in the cities with a Hockey team care about that team. For example, the San Jose Sharks, sure they have a strong following in San Jose, but there is such huge potential for the entire Bay Area. If Hockey can get the Bay Area hooked? They have immediately got the Sharks fanbase and made it 10 times bigger. Hockey must also improve promoting the history of the game. Younger generation doesn't know about Wayne Gretzky or Mario Lemieux, or even the miracle on ice where during the Cold War, USA defeated the heavily favored USSR in the 1980 Winter Olympics.

The 'Miracle on Ice' is considered one of the most patriotic moments in US sports

I won't pretend to have all the answers, and I certainly wouldn't make any guarantee's that everyone will feel the same way about Hockey as I do, but I do expect the NHL to make a HUGE effort in the coming months. If not? Hockey will destine to be forever the back burner to the other major sports. And all I could say if that happens, is "I told you so".

The Greatest Sports Moments I have witnessed

2011-06-03T02:46:00.000-07:00

San Francisco Giants - Show Me the Money

2011-06-03T01:32:00.000-07:00

The San Francisco Giants are quite a mystery, they have in recent years given out god awful contracts. Yet in 2010 they were able to win the World Series, and this with their 2 highest paid players essentially being on the bench or non-factors in the playoffs (Barry Zito and Aaron Rowand). However, it doesn't stop there, in 2011 not much has changed, they are still paying outrageous money to Zito and Rowand, and lets not forget Mark DeRosa who has been one big injury with the Giants. Furthermore, so far in 2011, Miguel Tejada and Aubrey Huff have been underwhelming to say the least, and this year they are earning a combined $16.5 million, with a stat line of .210 AVG 1 HR and 16 RBI for Tejada and .219 AVG 5 HR and 24 RBI for Huff. Just awful production for what these guys are being paid*

Now lets take a look at the team as a whole. The Giants are 8th in the Majors in payroll, thus we know that the owners are willing to spend quite a large amount of money and they are. Unfortunately as I have pointed out, the majority of the money is going to the wrong people. It is almost mind blowing how the Giants could win a World Series, with so much money basically being flushed down the toilet. Lets take a look at the 5 worst contracts currently with the Giants. Barry Zito, Aaron Rowand, Mark DeRosa, Miguel Tejada and Huff. We have already taken a look at the numbers in the Tejada and Huff contracts. Let's now combine all 5 of these players contracts. The money those 5 players are making is, get ready for this, a whopping $54.6 MILLION. For this incredible number the Giants are getting: "6th" starter on the team (Zito), 5th Outfielder (Rowand), walking injury (DeRosa), backup caliber SS (Tejada) and a way under performing 1B (Huff).

Barry Zito has been one of, if not the biggest Free Agent Bust in recent history

I am no expert when it comes to Major League contracts, I don't fully understand exactly how the arbitration works, or all the increments of how a contract is formed but I will do my best with where I think that money should go once it's off the books. Let's take a look at the guys who absolutely have to be re-signed long term by the Giants: Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, Buster Posey, Pablo Sandoval and Brian Wilson. Now I don't wanna get in to too much detail as I could probably write an entire book as to where the money should go. So lets focus on the previously mentioned players the Giants must re-sign (in my opinion). For the sake of simplicity, lets assume that the contracts will be given out when they are needed and they can be structured to be front loaded or back loaded. I will just give the average salary the player will earn each year. Basically what I will be doing is, using the $54.6 million in bad soon to be finished contracts to re-signing the stars on the team. Here goes.

Tim Lincecum - This year earning $14 million, I think Timmy gets a contract approximately the same as Roy Halladay or Cliff Lee. Maybe a 6 year $123.6 Million contract, average salary = $20.6 million. So an increase of 14 to 20. So we take $6.6 million off the total. Now we have $48 million of the total left.

Matt Cain - This year Cain earns $7.33 million, next year he gets $15.33 million. I think Cain will get a contract along the lines of 6 years $92 million, therefore an average of $15.33 million and an $8 million increase over this years contract. So now the total is $40 million left.

Brian Wilson - Fan favorite Brian Wilson makes $6.5 million this year, the top closer in the game Mariano Rivera makes $15 million/year, I don't think Wilson will quite get that. I think Wilson will get something like a 6 year $69 million contract. Making an average of $11.5 million/year and therefore an increase of $5 million leaving $35 million left on the total.

The Giants future will be in good hands by keeping this trio intact

Buster Posey & Pablo Sandoval - Both of these guys are making around $500,000 this year and are currently hurt, Posey for the year and Sandoval is scheduled back in the next 2 weeks. Both are major faces of the franchise, and are destined to be part of the heart of the order for a long time. Posey and Sandoval are to the Giants, what Mauer and Morneau are to the Twins, except the Giants players are younger and have just as much if not more potential. I think you basically throw the rest of the $35 million at these guys. Again to compare to the Twins, Mauer is making $23 million/year and Morneau $15 million/year, I think the Giants can get Posey locked up at an average of $20 million/year and Sandoval if he can prove to stay in shape and hit well, could get up to an average of $15 million/year. Both of these guys will hit .300+ AVG, 20+ HR and 90+ RBI for the next decade.

We can argue about the numbers, we can argue about the years, I was just giving examples of what the Giants could give these guys. The main point I wanted to show here was that the Giants can and should use the huge sum of money they currently have invested in minimal impact players, to lock up all their stars. Not only are these players extremely talented, but they are all so charismatic, AT&T gets sold out regularly to see these guys play, they are in essence, Giants in the San Francisco Bay Area.

*Wrote that prior to the game today, where Aubrey shut my mouth by hitting 3 HR's with 6 RBI

MLB Weekly Power Rankings

2011-06-01T15:47:00.000-07:00

This is the 2nd week of my Baseball Power Rankings. Just like the first week I will do the top 5 and bottom 5 teams in my opinion. There will be quite a few changes to this week's rankings, especially at the top. My Rankings are based on overall record and how well the teams have done from one week to the next. Lets get this started.

Top 5

1 (2) - St. Louis Cardinals (33-23) - This team has been hot as of late (7-3 in last 10 games), the Cards have an excellent road record (18-13) and they have played 6 more games on the road than at home. The Cards SP has been much better than expected, Salas has stabilized the 9th inning woes and they are tied with the 2nd most runs in the Majors, and with Albert Pujols struggling.
My question is, how will you stop the Cards offense when (not if) Pujols starts hitting .320 with power, and you also got Matt Holliday, Lance Berkman, Colby Rasmus and clutch hitter Yadier Molina to worry about? Yikes. People talk about the Brewers being the best team in the Central? Really?

It's only a matter of time before Pujols (see above) finds his swing again. Watch out Baseball, here come the Cards.

2 (1)- Cleveland Indians (32-20) - They have definitely cooled off as of late, however, the Indians still have the best winning percentage (.615) in the Majors. While we knew they would come back down to Earth, it appears that this Indians team is for real and if they can continue to get good all around production, they should be in my top 5 for quite some time.

3 - Arizona Diamondbacks (30-25) - This team has resembled the weather in Arizona and been extremely hot lately. They have won 13 of their last 15 games, taken a lead in the NL West from the now Buster Posey-less Giants and appear like a legit contender in that division. The last 2 weeks they have had an outburst of offensive production, scoring 15, 11, 9, 8 and 7 in games, while also showing the ability to win the close low scoring games too. They will cool down, but they have a realistic shot in the wide open NL West.

4 - New York Yankees (31-23) - The Yankees have won 4 in a row, while rival Boston has lost 4 in a row. The Yankees have the best run differential in the Majors (+67) and all this with A-Rod and Mark Teixeira not hitting what we know they can. Both Bartolo Colon (3-3 3.26 ERA) and Freddy Garcia (4-4 3.34 ERA) have been pleasant surprises for the Yanks.

5 (3) - Philadelphia Phillies (34-22) - The Phillies do have the best winning percentage in the National League (.607) but just edged out the surging Brewers. They also have allowed the 3rd fewest runs in the Majors even with Cliff Lee having a few rough outings. The Phillies would be higher but losing to the Nationals in 2 straight games when you roll out Cliff Lee and Roy Oswalt to the mound doesn't impress me too much. The offense needs to become more consistent.

Bottom 5
26 (28) San Diego Padres (24-31) - The Padres have a bottom 5 winning percentage in the Majors with a meager .436, add to this they are tied for scoring the fewest runs too. It's hard to win consistently when you don't score runs. There is a positive, the Padres have won 4 in a row and are only 6 games behind in a winnable NL West. If they can get some offense going, then they cannot be counted out yet.

27 (27) Kansas City Royals (24-30) - The one thing you gotta like is that they have been pretty decent at home, posting a respectable 18-14 record. That is basically where the good ends for this team, 6-16 on the road, played 10 more home games than road games, and they are 2-8 in their last 10 games. Said it before and will say it again, lets check back with the Royals in 2012 or 2013.

Rookie 1B Eric Hosmer will be a big piece in Kansas City's Puzzle moving forward

28 (29) Houston Astros (22-34) - The Astros have a dreadful .393 winning percentage, with only the Twins having a worse percentage. Allowing the 2nd most runs is gonna spell disaster for any team, however they are showing some signs of life having just swept the Cubs in Wrigley. Hunter Pence has been extremely productive this year and could be a huge trade asset as we get closer to July.

29 Chicago Cubs (23-31) - This team is slumping bad. They just got swept by the aforementioned Houston Astros at Wrigley Field. They are 3-7 in their last 10 games, they have an awful record at home (12-19) and have allowed the 3rd most runs in the Majors. To add insult to injury their only power hitter Alfonso Soriano is now on the DL. Pray for the Cubbies.

30 (30) Minnesota Twins (17-36) - This team is just awful right now. They are 2-8 in their last 10 games and have by far the worst run differential (-91) and winning percentage (.321) in the Majors. Nothing more to be said here.

Some things to note, had I done a full 30 team power rankings, my San Francisco Giants would have fallen quite a bit from their 4th place last week. Losing Buster Posey and going 4-6 in our last 10 would have a lot to do with that. Also just missing out on the top 5 are the Milwaukee Brewers and Florida Marlins.

And there we have it for this week folks. Let me know what you guys think, agree or disagree with my rankings? Let me know in the comments section.

NFC West - Free Agent Moves That Need to Happen

2011-06-01T08:21:00.000-07:00

As I wrote in one of my previous posts, the NFC West is unquestionably the worst division in football. All 4 of the teams in this division have a lot of work to do. Here are some free agent additions I think each of the teams should make. These additions should be taken in conjunction with the trades that I wrote about before. Hence, the following trades have occurred:
Arizona gets Carson Palmer, Seattle gets Kevin Kolb and the one change I wanted to make was St. Louis trades for Steve Smith of the Carolina Panthers instead of Chad OchoCinco. Smith has already stated he wants out, and while Smith is not drama free, he won't be as much a distraction as 85 and would provide a receiver that would fit perfectly with Sam Bradford. Also will add a trade the 49ers could explore in addition to a Free Agent signing.

The NFC West was a combined 25-39 last season, with 7-9 Seattle winning the division

Arizona Cardinals
Barrett Ruud - Middle Line Backer
The Cardinals added a franchise QB in Carson Palmer in my projected trades that need to happen. That along with the addition of RB Ryan Williams in the draft should go a long way to improving the offense. Now lets take a look at the defense. The Cardinals have one of the more talented secondaries in the NFL, and pro-bowl caliber lineman in Darnell Dockett. While Dockett is a vocal leader, they really need a strong presence in the Middle of the defense. With the departure of Karlos Dansby, there was a clear lack of talent at the linebacker position. Ruud, in my opinion, is perfectly suited to play in this defense, he racks up tackles and can make plays with INT's. One of the more underrated players in the NFL and could vault the Cardinals defense in to one of the better ones in the NFC. With adding Palmer and Ruud, the Cardinals would be a perfect candidate for bounce back team of the year. Something I also touched on in a previous post.

San Francisco 49ers
Jonathan Joseph - Corner Back
In the draft, the 49ers were hoping and praying that someway, somehow, LSU CB Patrick Peterson would fall to them at 7. This was not to be as the Cardinals took Peterson with the 5th overall pick. The 49ers did select talented sack artist in Aldon Smith. Now what the 49ers need is a top end CB. While the only 2 true shutdown CB's in the NFL are Darrelle Revis and Nnamdi Asomugha, Joseph would be an excellent addition to the 49ers defense. Joseph gets overlooked playing for the Bengals and playing beside Leon Hall, but he is one of the better CB's that doesn't get talked about.
While the Pass Rush was a problem for the 49ers last season, their secondary was the major weakness of the defense. By adding Aldon Smith and Jonathan Joseph, the defense under new coordinator Vic Fangio would get a huge talent injection, to go along with other excellent players in Patrick Willis, Justin Smith, Aubrayo Franklin (who the 49ers need to re-sign) and Takeo Spikes.

Jonathan Joseph would be the ideal consolation prize for the 49ers after missing out on Patrick Peterson in the draft

49ers trade 5th round pick to Tampa Bay Buccaneers for QB Josh Johnson
The reasoning behind this trade? 49ers HC Jim Harbaugh was Josh Johnson's college coach, and thus Johnson would be familiar with Harbaugh's offense. While I am not expecting Johnson to start, his impact would be more in helping the other QB's (Colin Kaepernick and Alex Smith) in learning Harbaugh's offense. With the shortened offseason the 49ers QB's will need all the help they can get and having a guy in the locker room who spent years with Harbaugh would be invaluable. Not only this, but it was in Harbaugh's offense which put JJ in the position to be drafted where he was, and I think back in this offense he would make for a solid backup QB in the long term behind Kaepernick. Also acquiring JJ means no more David Carr which is always a good thing for any team.

Seattle Seahawks
Logan Mankins - Offensive Guard
It appears to me that Mankins is not committed to staying with the Patriots, it also looks obvious that he is after a big payday. Well it just so happens that Seattle Seahawks owner Paul Allen is one of the richest men in the World and when it comes to his Seahawks he is not afraid to spend money. Recently Seattle has invested high draft picks to shore up the Offensive Tackle positions (Russell Okung at LT and draftee James Carpenter at RT), but questions still remain in the interior of the O-Line. By adding Mankins, Seattle would be regaining a LG and LT combo with the potential to be as dominant as Steve Hutchinson and Walter Jones were for years up in the Pacific Northwest.
If we take my projected trades, Seattle would have added Kevin Kolb, who would immediately become the franchise QB. Not only would adding Mankins help Kolb in the passing game, but he would be a vital piece in establishing an effective run game. Seattle's biggest problem on offense in 2010 was consistency, at times look great, and at times look awful. Improving at the QB position and adding 2 major additions to the O-Line (Mankins and Carpenter) would go a long way to making the Seattle offense that much more consistent.

St. Louis Rams
Darren Sproles - Running Back/Kick Returner
The future in St. Louis is all about Sam Bradford and putting him in the best position to succeed. Trading for Steve Smith, gives Bradford a legit pass catcher and by adding Sproles, the Rams would get a change of pace back who would compliment Steven Jackson perfectly. Sproles is a home run hitter in the run game, while Jackson is more of a bruiser who excels at pounding the defense for gains of 5-10 yards. Sproles will also be a huge help in the return game, putting Bradford and the Rams offense in better field position consistently.

The NFC West has essentially been the laughing stock of the NFL the last few years, highlighted last year by the winner having a pathetic 7-9 record. The first time ever a division winner having a losing record. I believe that with the trades and free agent signings made, that would go a long way to improving this division and bringing it back to respectable.

Previewing the NBA Finals

2011-05-30T13:17:00.000-07:00

For the first time in 4 years, the Finals will not be featuring Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers. Instead we have a very intriguing match up between the Dallas Mavericks and Miami Heat. These two teams met each other in the 2006 Finals and the rematch promises to provide more drama and excitement. Of course the last time these two teams met in the Finals both Rosters looked very different especially the Miami Heat. Bye bye Shaq, Hello Lebron James and Chris Bosh. As for the Mavericks they are getting great production for the crafty veteran Jason Kidd, and his backup JJ Barea has been a spark off the bench. Tyson Chandler also gives them a very nice presence in the paint. Lets now do a position by position comparison between the Mavs and Heat.

No shortage of Superstar players in the 2011 NBA Finals, featuring the likes of Lebron James, Dwyane Wade, Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Kidd and Chris Bosh.

Point Guard
Jason Kidd & JJ Barea vs Mike Bibby & Mario Chalmers - Advantage Dallas.

By the Roster Bibby and Chalmers are the official PG's, however, expect to see James and Wade take the point at times during the game. For the sake of this comparison, lets stick to Bibby and Chalmers. Kidd and Bibby are each teams veteran PG's, personally give me Kidd over Bibby any day. Kidd has been hitting 3's better than ever, is also the superior passer to Bibby, and he is excellent at drawing in defenders and then kicking out to a shooter. While I like the energy Chalmers brings to the Heat off the bench, Barea has just been so good and so effective in the playoffs that I'd also have to go with Dallas here. Barea can provide immediate scoring and mismatches. Advantage Dallas.

Shooting Guard
DeShawn Stevenson/Jason Terry vs Dwyane Wade - Advantage Miami.

I like what both Stevenson and Terry can do, especially if either can hit some early shots then they can get hot and seem like they will never miss a jumper, however, the decision here is pretty easy, Dwyane Wade is a game changer, an excellent defender, impossible to stop offensively and has won the Finals before. Wade is just too quick, strong and talented to be stopped. Even if he is not having his best shooting night he will get to the line a lot, draw a ton of fouls, play excellent defense, and pass the ball extremely well too. Dwyane Wade is capable of making plays that can demoralize a team. Advantage Miami.

Small Forward
Shawn Marion vs Lebron James - Advantage Miami.

While I love how Marion has been playing, and really accepted being a role player, this is a no brainer. James is just a far far superior player. No doubt James is the better player, will put up better numbers, play better defense and do just about everything well, the Mavs need a Herculean type performance from Marion. Look, you don't shut down Lebron James, you just try to contain him, and hope he doesn't go for a triple double with 30+ points on you. I think this matchup, while widely in favor of the Heat, will be a pivotal point in this Finals. How much can Marion slow down James? We will find out. Advantage Miami.

Power Forward
Dirk Nowitzki vs Chris Bosh - Advantage Dallas.

Dirk's fadeaway is almost impossible to stop, preview of things to come for Chris Bosh?

Now this matchup is going to be a lot of fun to watch. While Chris Bosh has definitely stepped up his game the last few weeks, you gotta give the advantage here to Nowitzki. Dirk has been playing out of his mind lately, and he is essentially unguardable. If Dirk starts hitting that fade-away jumper then all you can hope if you're the Heat is that Wade and Lebron are hitting their shots. Not only can Dirk hit that fade away, but he is excellent at drawing fouls and getting to the foul line in bunches, and he is an excellent Free Throw shooter. Oh and did I mention Dirk can hit a 3 about as good as anyone? While I understand Bosh is a good talent, and will have a good series, Dirk is just better. Advantage Dallas

Center
Tyson Chandler & Brendan Haywood vs Udonis Haslem & Joel Anthony - Advantage Dallas.

Haslem had himself a nice series vs Chicago, definitely provided a presence that the Heat needed in order to get by the Bulls. Anthony while having almost no offensive game, is a better defender than you think, and is a high energy big man who gets the most out of his talent. While both Haslem and Anthony will play solid at worst, you gotta give the advantage to Chandler and Haywood. They are bigger and more athletic than their Miami counterparts, have a bigger impact on the offensive end, not only scoring more points but grabbing a healthy amounts of offensive rebounds too. Advantage Dallas.

So Dallas has the advantage in 3 of the 5 positions, and also at the 2 most important positions (PG and Center), I still gotta give the edge to Miami in this series. Wade and Lebron are just so dominating, and Bosh should be good too, that even if they can get mediocre performances from their other players that they will pull out the victory here. Dallas I feel will be relying way too much on players like DeShawn Stevenson and Shawn Marion to play out of their mind to take this series. I think it will be a lot of fun to watch, both teams play good all round basketball. My prediction is Miami in 7, with the big 3 getting a championship in their first year together. The question then will be, who can stop them in the East? (see previous post).

What I will be watching today:
San Francisco Giants (Madison Bumgarner) vs St. Louis Cardinals (Kyle McClellan).

MLB Power Rankings will be up on Wednesday. Lots of changes, so check back for that too.

NBA - What Next?

2011-05-28T23:26:00.000-07:00

While the NBA is not my strongest sport, I do wanna touch on it now and again. The Finals are approaching and I for one am very excited for it. However, with this post I want to take a look in to the future of the NBA and make predictions and give my views on what I expect to happen. Lets start from the bottom and work our way up.

You can't get much lower than the Cleveland Cavaliers and as everyone knows, last summer Lebron James left Cleveland for South Beach and surprise surprise the Cavs end up with an awful record. Well Lady Luck (or David Stern) has come to the Cavs help and gave them the 1st and 4th overall pick. While this draft is not that strong, this is a good place to start building for the future. According to sources the Cavaliers are attempting to make a trade to hold the #2 pick as well, here is the link: Possible Trade . Despite this draft being considered weak, the Cavs would be able to acquire the far and away top 2 prospects in Point Guard Kyrie Irving and Forward Derrick Williams. This would be a great building block for the future.

Cavs owner Dan Gilbert finally had a reason to smile at the outcome of the 2011 NBA Draft Lottery

It is difficult for the Cavs to attract free agent talent, but I'm thinking if they throw enough money at either Marc Gasol or Nene, one of them may bite. Another option, is Greg Oden, the oft injured Center for the Trail Blazers. Trading for Oden would be a gamble for sure, but it's one that if it pays off (and I know its probably a long shot) could be huge for the Cavs going forward. I'm thinking even with Irving and Williams, and a possible addition at Center, that relying on 2 rookies will require a steep learning curve. Maybe the Cavs get another high pick next year, add another quality player and are back in playoff contention.

Who can seriously challenge the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference going forward? It's gonna come down to Chicago or New York, while Boston have maybe a 1 or 2 year window for being a highly competitive team.

Chicago is the best competition for Miami, one thing which became painfully obvious in their recent playoff series was how much they needed another scorer at the SG position. Lucky for the Bulls there are going to be quite a few options for them, including guys like Jason Richardson and Aaron Afflalo. Personally I like Afflalo, as he provides the better defense, which is stressed by the Tom Thibedeau coached Bulls. I think the player that would fit them perfectly however would be Monta Ellis. If they can swing a trade to get Monta from the Warriors, they would be impossible to defend. Also while Monta's defense isn't great, Rose is big enough to take on the opponents SG, while Ellis can take on the smaller PG. By adding another scorer, along with their talented big men (Joakim Noah, Carlos Boozer, Taj Gibson and Asik), that would be Miami's biggest competition.

Which team will be the Kryptonite to Miami's Supermen?

The New York Knicks are a team which will have to be respected going forward. When you have 2 superstar players (Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire) your team is gonna be in good shape. The Knicks seem on a mission to do whatever it takes to become a championship caliber team. There are already rumors of Chris Paul landing in New York eventually. A team that has the best pure PG in Paul, a top scorer in Carmelo and an excellent post presence in Stoudemire will be a tough out for anyone and even for the likes of the Heat.

The Boston Celtics cannot be discounted even at their age, just when you think they are done they always seem to bounce back. Obviously they will have Paul Pierce, Rajon Rondo, Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett anchoring the team, however one thing which held them back this postseason was their big men. You have to assume they are gonna do better than Jermaine O'Neal, Shaq and Nenad Krstic at Center.

The other notable teams in the East like the Magic and the Hawks will provide some competition but won't really pose much of a realistic threat to the Heat in my opinion.

What I will be watching tomorrow:

MLB - San Francisco Giants (Matt Cain) vs Milwaukee Brewers (Gallardo)

From Worst to First - NFL Edition

2011-05-27T23:25:00.000-07:00

The great thing about the NFL is how a team can go from bottom 5 to playoff contender in 1 season. Recent examples of this include: Miami going from 1-15 with Cam Cameron at HC to 11-5 and winning the division the very next year with Tony Sparano, also the Buccaneers having the 3rd overall pick in the 2010 draft to going 10-6 later that year and just missing out on getting a playoff spot.

So lets turn our attention to which team is most likely to be the next example of this, I had planned to do both an NFC and AFC example, but the top teams in the AFC are just too good for this to happen. Denver, Tennessee and Cincinnati are going through Head Coaching and/or QB changes, with a shortened offseason that is just a recipe for disaster. While Buffalo are just simply not good enough to compete with the likes of the Patriots and Jets.

I think the most likely team to go from bottom of the division to the top is the Arizona Cardinals. I fully expect them to trade for a QB (Palmer, Kolb or Orton) and lets face it, the NFC West is easily the worst division in football.
The 49ers are definitely in a transition year, new coach (LOVE the Jim Harbaugh hiring by my Niners) and new QB. The 49ers are gonna be good........but in 2012. The Seahawks had by far the worst draft of all the NFC West teams. I don't expect any impact players this year, from their draft class and Matt Hasselbeck is another year older and even more likely to get hurt. I see them being a 7-9 team again. The Rams are interesting, they got their franchise QB in Sam Bradford, however they are changing offensive systems and we all know about the sophomore slump. The Rams are not sneaking up on anyone this year like they did last season.

The Cardinals and Larry Fitzgerald would thrive again with a new QB

Now back to the Cardinals and why they should be better (Assuming they do trade to acquire a QB). They could not possibly do worse at QB then they had last year. QB is by far the most important position in the game and any one of the three QB's mentioned would be a massive upgrade. They added maybe the best prospect in Patrick Peterson CB from LSU. Peterson, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, Adrian Wilson and Kerry Rhodes headline an extremely talented secondary.
The Cardinals have a talented defense especially if they can add some pass rush help when ever Free Agency does start. Add that defense with impressive RB depth and huge obvious upgrade at QB and an easier schedule, as they play against the bottom teams from the NFC South (Panthers) and NFC North (Vikings).

The Seahawks and 49ers are a transition team this year and the Rams have sophomore slump written all over them. The Cardinals and Ken Whisenhunt are in win now mode, they will get a QB, and for a good bet, I suggest putting some money down on the Cards.

Just for fun, if I HAD to choose which AFC team was capable of doing this then I'd have to go with the Titans. I think they will also be another team acquiring a veteran QB. While Jake Locker has huge potential, he is very raw and will need at least a year on the bench. I think a guy like Kyle Orton would fit perfectly with them. Good defense, Excellent run game and improvement at the QB position with less off field drama. Sounds like the AFC version of the Cardinals, Jags and Texans are likely .500ish teams. Manning is coming off another neck surgery and he looked like his age a lot more than ever before.

Jake Locker is the future for the Titans but he is just not ready yet.

San Francisco Giants Update
Would like to finish off by saying that was a huge win for the San Francisco Giants today, and to send my congratulations to the local product Brandon Crawford from Mountain View, CA. His first career hit was a Grand Slam, which ended up being the winning hit as Tim Lincecum earned his 5th win of the season while the Giants took the series opener 5-4. Big come from behind win, to not only end the 3 game skid but maybe help mend the emotions and raise the spirits of Giants players, coaches and fans after the Buster Posey incident. Look forward to seeing a whole lot more of Crawford and also how prized prospect Brandon Belt will do in his return to the Majors. Tomorrow we have the matchup of:
Jonathan Sanchez (3-3, 3.47 ERA) vs Randy Wolf (4-4, 3.70 ERA) at 1:10PM Pacific Time.

The Steroid Era and The Hall of Fame

2011-05-27T18:39:00.000-07:00

This is gonna be an age old question, do players who have tested positive for steroids or have overwhelming evidence of doing so, belong in the Hall of Fame? The answer has to be Y-E-S yes! Look I completely understand the argument of the more traditional baseball enthusiast, that steroid era players should not get voted in, that their numbers are inflated, etc etc. But let me give you my side of the argument as to why, in my opinion, players from the steroid era do belong in the Hall of Fame.

The Steroid Era happened. Nothing we will ever do or say will erase that fact. I get the feeling that a lot of people who don't want the players from this era in, is that eventually the era itself will be forgotten. That is simply never going to happen. There are just too many Hall of Fame caliber players from this era to just simply flat out ignore it. Place an '*' beside their name, in Cooperstown have a special section dedicated to this era, do what ever you want to them, but first they must be voted in. How can you seriously have a Baseball Hall of Fame which doesn't include the likes of Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Alex Rodriguez etc etc.

382 HR's, 1451 RBI, .298 AVG, .352 OBP and 1 MVP
762 HR's, 1996 RBI, .298 AVG, .444 OBP and 6 MVP's

The 1st stat line is that of recent Hall of Fame inductee Jim Rice of the Boston Red Sox. An excellent player in his time and in my opinion, just about deserving of induction. The 2nd line contains the career numbers of Barry Lamar Bonds. Odds are if you are not a fan of the San Francisco Giants you probably flat out hate the guy, you probably hate the fact he holds arguably the most coveted record in American Sports, hitting 762 Home Runs. But don't tell me this guy doesn't belong in the Hall of Fame. His numbers are way too ridiculous to even have to think twice about it.

Whether you love or hate him, Barry Bonds belongs in the Hall of Fame

So I'm guessing many responses would be "Oh you are a Giants fan! Of course you'd say that about Bonds!" Well I will save you some time, guys like Clemens, Alex Rodriguez, all belong in there too. I hate Roger Clemens and I hate A-Rod, but they along with every other deserving player from this era, need to be in the Hall of Fame when it's all said and done.

Is the 2011 Giants Season Over?

2011-05-26T16:46:00.000-07:00

Short answer? No, but for fun, lets give a longer more in-depth answer.

First of all I want to touch on Home Plate collisions in Baseball. Watching Sports Science on ESPN, the hit a catcher takes on a Home Plate collision comes at a force a QB takes on a blind side hit. In football, QB's wear pads that can absorb up to 40% of the hit, in Baseball? Nothing even close to that. This is something MLB should have corrected a LONG time ago.

Mychael Urban of CSN Bay Area tweeted "@MUrbanCSN: Oh my god. Enuf sniveling about the hit! It was clean! Change the rules? What, make them wear a tutu? Stop it. It's big-league ball. W/ risks" Really? There isn't a better way to do it then to say, "OK baserunner, collide with him as hard as you can to hopefully jar the ball loose". Come on now, this thought process is dumb and dangerous. Sometimes it takes a superstar player getting hurt to get a rule changed (Tom Brady come to mind?) Well now is Baseballs chance to do something about Home Plate collisions. I'm open to suggestions, I hope Bud Selig is too.

Are Home Plate collisions really a necessary part of the game?

Now to the Giants, my team. Based on my tweets and facebook comments immediately after Posey's injury, you'd have thoughts the world crashed down on the Giants and that they may as well forfeit the season. I've had time to think it over and calm down. This season is far from over. Lets take a look at the reasons why the Giants should still be in the race for the NL West.

The Giants own a 2 game lead in the NL West after 49 games, and they got this lead with a team with the following hitting rankings; Runs 29th, Average 21st, OBP 24th and Slugging 23rd. Point is, the hitting can't get much worse then it has already been this year. While Posey's presence in the lineup will definitely be missed, guys like Aubrey Huff, Miguel Tejada and Cody Ross are due to get hot.
The Giants are getting their best hitter back very soon. Pablo Sandoval has missed the last week of April, will miss all of this month, and should be back around the 2nd week of June. The switch hitter, who was batting over .310 who even after all this time missed is tied on the team for most Home Runs. The Giants also called up prized young hitter Brandon Belt from the Minors again. Belt struggled his first time up, but having gotten more seasoning at San Jose, he is expected to have more of an impact this time around. Hitting under .200 his last time up, I'd expect him to hit between .260-.270 this time up with decent power numbers.
The Trade Deadline. There are 2 ways the Giants can trade for more offense, the first would be to send some prospects off to acquire a bat. Now the Giants shouldn't have a kneejerk reaction and make a panic trade. If Sabean plans to ship off top prospects, he simply cannot get a one year rental, make a smart trade and proceed from there. The second would be to trade one of the Starting Pitchers. Maybe the biggest surprise this season has been how well Ryen Vogelsong has done. Today against the Florida Marlins was another perfect example of how good a job he has done, pitching 8 innings with only 1 earned run allowed. Should he continue to be this impressive, the Giants now have some nice flexibility in their pitchers. I would then look to feel out what teams are willing to offer for the services of either Vogelsong or Jonathan Sanchez. Starting Pitchers always have huge value in the trading market and should be able to net a solid young hitter for a guy like Jonathan Sanchez.
Players Waived/Released CAN make a difference. The Giants may not even need to make a trade in order to add some help to the hitting. Last year they traded for Jose Guillen, but got Pat Burrell and Cody Ross for nothing. How did this work out? Burrell and Ross were much more productive and are still with the team. Is Guillen even in the Majors this year?
Finally, the Giants play in the NL West, and there is just simply no team that will run away with this division. The Padres are bad, the Dodgers are a .500 team, the Diamondbacks have been playing well lately, but I don't think they can sustain this level, and are maybe an 80-85 win team. The Rockies are the biggest competition for the Giants, but they just lost their most consistent starting pitcher in Jorge De La Rosa for the season and it seems like Troy Tulowitzki is proving that he is human after all. With the pitching staff that the Giants have, even a below average type offense can be enough to win this division.

Cody Ross has been a solid hitter and fan favorite since being acquired off waivers

I think the one major thing the Giants have to remember is to not panic, you don't have to rush Pablo Sandoval back, you don't have to make a panic trade or do anything crazy. Sit back, remain calm and analyse the situation the team is in. This season is far from over.

The NFC West - Trades That Should Happen

2011-05-25T12:58:00.000-07:00

The NFC West is easily the worst division in football, after the draft not much has changed in that regard. Why is the NFC West the weakest division? Lets take a look at the projected starting QB's for the teams in the NFC West as it stands right now:
Arizona - John Skelton, San Francisco - Alex Smith, Seattle - Matt Hasselbeck and St.Louis - Sam Bradford. Besides for Bradford, the rest of the projected starters leave a lot to be desired. However, once the lockout is over and trades can happen, I can see the NFC West being extremely active in acquiring QB's. So these are my projected trade ideas.

Trade 1
Kevin Kolb to Seattle for two 2nd rounders and Matt Hasselbeck (essentially do a sign and trade). Lets look in to the reasoning of each team in this trade, and why it makes sense.
For Seattle - They need a new QB, the fact that they didn't draft any in April is telling to me. In this trade Seattle would get a young potentially franchise QB. Not only this, but they get a QB who is familiar with the West Coast Offense, so even in a shortened offseason, the transition to Seattle won't be too difficult for Kolb.

Kevin Kolb would be a welcome addition to the Seattle Seahawks

For Philadelphia - I'm thinking behind the scenes in Philly that Kolb has been hinting at wanting out. He feels he deserves a starting job and he won't get that in Philly. So in this scenario, Philly gets two 2nd rounders and they get an excellent veteran in Hasselbeck. Should Vick go down during the season Hasselbeck would be an ideal back up for Andy Reid.

Trade 2
Carson Palmer to Arizona for 1st and 3rd round picks.
For Arizona - I keep reading on ESPN how the Cardinals will go get Kolb, but the better fit is definitely Carson Palmer. Now of course you guys reading will quickly think, "oh but the Bengals won't trade Palmer!" well I say read my post titled "The Carson Palmer Dilemma". Now the price is quite steep from a Cardinals perspective, but they showed how good they can be with an established veteran QB. Palmer has more years in him than Warner did when he took over the starting gig in Arizona. You know Fitzgerald is pushing for a big move to get a QB and not drafting a QB tells me they are looking at trade options. Ken Whisenhunt cannot afford another season like last year. They go with the big splash, and something tells me this move will keep him in Arizona for some time.

For Cincinnati - Andy Dalton is the QB of the future in Cincy, there is way too much bad blood between Carson Palmer and the Bengals organization to stay together. Eventually the Bengals will wise up and trade him. In this scenario they get some nice picks to build their franchise from. Odds are Cincy won't be too competitive starting the rookie Dalton. So having two 1st round picks, two 2nd round picks (explained later) and two 3rd round picks should go a long way to getting them back in playoff contention.

Now, not all the trades in this division will involve QB's, lets take a look at what else I think should happen.

Trade 3
Chad OchoCinco and 4th round pick to St. Louis for a 2nd round pick.
For St. Louis - Lets face it Sam Bradford needs weapons. He did a solid job with some not so spectacular options at WR. OchoCinco would instantly become the best WR on the team, would provide a reliable productive target for the young Sam Bradford and honestly, he would bring some media attention to the Rams. They have almost become forgotten after so many awful seasons. Now they are ready to take the leap in to the big stage.

How good would OchoCinco look in a St. Louis Rams uniform?

For Cincinnati - Its rebuilding time in Cincinnati, and they need a fresh start. They need to move on from Palmer and OchoCinco. Opposite to St. Louis, Cincinnati needs less unnecessary attention in the media while they get this team rebuilt. I can't imagine OchoCinco being too happy to get passes from a rookie with little to no workouts in the offseason. This trade helps give Cincy 2 picks in each of the first 3 rounds.

As for San Francisco, I don't project any major trades to occur for them and I don't think they should be looking for a big trade. Their future at QB is Colin Kaepernick, and they have a nice surrounding cast for him on offense with Gore, Vernon Davis and Crabtree. I do see them looking in Free Agency at a CB like Ike Taylor or Jonathan Joseph.

MLB Power Rankings - Top 5 & Bottom 5

2011-05-25T09:05:00.000-07:00

Each week I plan to update the top 5 and the bottom 5 teams in Baseball. Doing all 30 teams is just too time consuming and do you really care who is 13th or 17th or 23rd? Thought not. So lets get this going and we shall start with the teams playing the best Baseball right now.

Cleveland Indians are all smiles with how their 2011 season is going.

Top 5
1 - Cleveland Indians 30-16 - Cleveland needed this, they needed something, anything to root for. Lebron bolts for Miami, the Browns are well...the Browns. I'm glad for the city of Cleveland that the Indians are playing lights out Baseball. They have the best run differential in Baseball (+65), the only knock I can make on them is that they are 11-11 on the road, but even that is not bad considering the way they play at home.

2 - St. Louis Cardinals 30-20 - The hottest team in Baseball, scoring a bunch of runs, starting pitching has been excellent. They have been this good and take in to account that no doubt Pujols is gonna hit a lot better than .267 and they don't have Adam Wainwright. Question marks in the bullpen and closer but I expect them to make a serious play for Heath Bell at the trade deadline.

3 - Philadelphia Phillies 29-19 - They have had their struggles on the offensive front, however, getting Chase Utley back is huge, and they will soon be getting Shane Victorino back too. These 2 guys fuel the Phillies offense, we know Ryan Howard will hit, but Utley and Victorino get this team moving. Pitching on this team will carry them despite offensive struggles.

4 - San Francisco Giants 27-20 - I may have to switch up the Giants and Marlins after the series they are currently playing. However, the Giants have been racking up the W's lately, they are now 7 games above .500. Keep in mind this is without their best hitter in Pablo Sandoval and Aubrey Huff, Buster Posey, Miguel Tejada and Pat Burrell all underachieving so far at the plate. When they start to hit, watch out!

5 - Florida Marlins 27-19 - They have just been winning, and getting key hits when needed. They have an excellent road record so far (13-7). Will have to check back in on them in a week or two, with their ace and Cy Young candidate Josh Johnson on the DL. One thing to note is that Hanley Ramirez WILL hit better than he has been. This team will challenge Philly all through the season.

Bottom 5
26 - Washington Nationals 21-27 - They have lost 4 in a row and have lost 7 of their last 10 games. Big Money Free Agent Jayson Werth hasn't lived up to the money yet, .247 AVG 8 HR's with only 18 RBI. I do like the Nationals going forward though. Next year or so when they get Strasburg back, and Bryce Harper will be ready to take on Major League pitching. Harper, Zimmerman and Werth projects to be a nice trio of hitters.

27 - Kansas City Royals - 22-25 - As a whole their season hasn't been awful, but they are 2-8 in their last 10 games, Royals Pitcher Vin Mazzaro's 14 Earned Run performance has summed up how they've been playing lately. While the Home Record is solid, their road record of 5-12 leaves a lot to be desired. Royals do have a bright future with some stars moving through the Minor Leagues.

28 - San Diego Padres 19-30 - Was last year just an blip on the radar? Certainly looks like it, trading away Adrian Gonzalez and the pitching struggling this team has gone from borderline playoff team to bottom feeder. I hope Padre fans soaked in last year cause they won't be getting that close to playoffs for a while.

29 - Houston Astros 18-31 - This team just doesn't have much talent, they need to trade Hunter Pence and try and trade Carlos Lee, build through the farm system. Once they have some promising prospects, they have the money to spend in Free Agency. Honestly I don't expect much from this team in the next 3-5 years.

30 - Minnesota Twins 16-31 - Yikes, what happened? Worst run differential BY FAR (-85), just awful at home (5-12) and their star hitters Justin Morneau and Joe Mauer have a combined 2 HR's 17 RBI and just a pathetic .230 AVG and .288 OBP. They better turn it around.

Minnesota Twins manager Ron Gardenhire has a lot to be upset about with how their season has gone

Check back next week while I update my Top 5 and Bottom 5 Teams in MLB. Lots of action today, my games to watch are:
AL - Red Sox @ Indians (Lester 6-1, 3.68 ERA vs Talbot 1-0, 1.46 ERA) 9:05AM Pacific Time
NL - Cardinals @ Padres (Carpenter 1-4, 4.88 ERA vs Latos 1-6, 4.60 ERA) 3:35PM Pacific Time

Don't forget to follow me on twitter at www.twitter.com/kalen182

Alex Smith and the 49ers in 2011

2011-05-24T01:38:00.000-07:00

So all signs are pointing to Alex Smith returning to San Francisco for the upcoming 2011 season. Under any normal offseason I'd bet my money on there being no chance of seeing Alex Smith in a 49ers uniform again, however this has not been a normal offseason. Unless you have been living under a rock, you'll know the NFL is locked out, and thus, no free agency period has happened or will likely happen before preseason.

This has lead many teams, like the 49ers, who have gaping holes at the QB position to go to desperate measures, whether its drafting Jake Locker 8th overall (Titans) or Christian Ponder 11th overall (Vikings) or in this case, the 49ers bringing back Alex Smith. New 49ers Head Coach Jim Harbaugh and 49ers GM Trent Baalke recognized that they needed some kind of veteran solution to allow their rookie QB Colin Kaepernick time to develop. Which has lead to Harbaugh saying all the right things about Alex, and doing whatever he can to get the former 1st overall pick to come back to the 49ers for what I assume will be 1 more year.

As bad and as frustrating as Alex Smith has been his career, his last 2 seasons have been somewhat respectable, compiling a stat line of: 4720 yards, 32 TD's 22 INT's and a 60% completion rate.

Alex Smith, QB of the San Francisco 49ers

So while many 49er fans will cringe at the thought of watching more games with Alex Smith under center, understand that the 49ers could do a lot worse. I mean, who else could you get in a realistic scenario? Kaepernick is the teams future QB, so it doesn't make sense to trade a bunch of picks to pick up Kevin Kolb or Carson Palmer. Donovan McNabb you say? The guy who refused to wear an arm band with the play calls on it for offensive guru Mike Shanahan in Washington, the guy who had a notable lack of work ethic in the offseason and who honestly just looked downright awful, do you really wanna give up picks for that, when you can have Alex Smith? I don't.

So now we have established why the 49ers want Alex Smith back, but why does Alex Smith wanna come back to the 49ers? Despite being booed multiple times in Candlestick Park by 49er fans, reasons I came up with as to why Smith would wanna come back were as follows:
First of all, he knows he will be the starter here in 2011, thus giving him a chance to play and maybe driving up his market value for the 2012 offseason and earn a decent contract and maybe even get a starting gig somewhere else.
Secondly, he knows and is familiar with the personnel in San Francisco, guys like Frank Gore, Vernon Davis, Michael Crabtree etc.

Finally, I think Alex is much more of a competitor then people believe and I'm thinking he may feel like he has unfinished business in San Francisco. Had Alex Smith decided to not come back here next season, he leaves himself way too many question marks, such as, where will I be next season? When will I know where I will be? Will I go somewhere with a realistic chance to start? How will I cope with a whole new offensive personnel in a shortened offseason?

The future in 49er land - HC Jim Harbaugh and QB Colin Kaepernick

While I think from a personal and professional standpoint that Alex Smith really needs to get out of San Francisco and the 49ers also needing to move on from Alex, the lockout has created an unusual circumstance, where oddly enough, the best situation for both the 49ers and Alex Smith is to come together for 1 more year.

The Carson Palmer Dilemma

2011-05-23T15:25:00.000-07:00

Carson Palmer, was once thought of as the 3rd best QB in the NFL behind Tom Brady and Peyton Manning, then Kimo von Oelhoffen shredded Palmers knee in a 2006 Playoff Matchup between the Cincinnati Bengals and Pittsburgh Steelers. Since then he has never been the same player, however in this QB driven league, a guy like Palmer will always have very high value.

Carson Palmer, QB of the Cincinnati Bengals

Since the onset of the 2011 offseason, Palmer has stated that he has no intention of playing another down for the Bengals. So how have the Bengals reacted to this situation? They have stated that they refuse to trade their franchise QB under any circumstance. What do I think of this stance? I think up to this point, the Bengals have played their cards perfectly. And now I will tell you why.

What the Bengals have is a huge asset, there are a number of teams which would love to have the services of Carson Palmer (Arizona, Seattle, Washington, San Francisco, Miami, Oakland). The stance the Bengals have taken has given them the best leverage they can possibly get. Why should the Bengals say anything but "We will not trade him", even if they wanted to trade him they can't with the lockout. Assuming the lockout ends sometime in the summer, I'd imagine teams will come calling Cincy. Now if the Bengals had been saying things along the lines of "We will consider a trade" or "We will listen to offers" that gives the impression he can be had, and thus drives down the possible value they can get.

What the Bengals have done, is made other teams considering Palmer, now having to initiate talks and have to immediately come in with a big offer. I take everything the Bengals have said with a grain of salt, I am going by the assumption that they are bluffing and that with the right offer they would go ahead and trade Palmer. If they just let him retire and get nothing in return? Well that quickly turns them from geniuses to idiots.

MLB Power Rankings coming later today.