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Archive for January, 2011

It’s that time of year again folks. Pitchers & catchers are about to report. So I thought I’d reveal my thoughts on where each MLB team will finish this year, including my playoff predictions.

AL East:

1) New York Yankees 95-67 – the New York Yankees, as currently constructed look like the 2nd best team in the division, reality is the Yankees always add what they need. The Yankees will manage to acquire two starters over the course of the season & be dominant after the All-Star break passing their long time foes.

2) Boston Red Sox 92-70 – the Red Sox made two key additions in the offseason that would make everyone think they’ll win over 100 games. Bucholz & Lester are great, the rest of the rotation is extremely average with a good upside. The team needed to add Carl Crawford & Adrian Gonzalez because the team had only two good hitters. Those two are both coming off of injury.

3) Baltimore Orioles 80-82 – the Orioles started to try when Buck Showalter took over as manager. The team has talent in the field with Nick Markakis & Brian Roberts. The issue will again come due to the fact that they have no pitching. Due to Showalter’s coaching the team will steal at least 20 games they had no business winning. If the pitching comes together they may be .500.

4) Tampa Bay Rays 76-86 – the Rays let all their key free agents head out the door, even Carlos Pena, who wanted to stay. Then they traded their ace pitcher for next to nothing. The team clearly is in rebuilding mode. If they didn’t have Joe Maddon as manager I’d assume they’d lose 100 games.

5) Toronto Blue Jays 45-117 – the Blue Jays had a miracle season last year due to everyone on the team doing six times better than their career averages. Many assumed it was steroids. The team traded away their best pitcher for the 2nd straight offseason. The team let the minor league overachievers stay around & traded off their only good player. Then they traded away the catcher they needed, for a mediocre reliever to join a fairly decent relief corp.

AL Central:

1) Detroit Tigers 89-73 – the Tigers once again have the best team in the division. The problem is they play in a division that no one seems to try in, resulting in random teams springing up at the end to win. The rotation isn’t as dominant as in the past, but the lineup has been updated greatly. If the bullpen takes form they will have no issues in the division.

2) Chicago White Sox 82-80 – the White Sox amazingly have the best pitching staff in the division. The problem lies in their lineup. They have Adam Dunn (who we don’t know if he’ll DH or play RF) & Paul Konerko. There isn’t much else there. I, as many others, believe Carlos Quentin was a one year wonder.

3) Minnesota Twins 81-81 – at some point the Twins have to play according to their talent level. They have one starting pitcher worth caring about. Their bullpen had been the most dominant in baseball, so everyone else signed their relievers in the offseason, leaving the cupboard bare. Mauer & Morneau cannot carry the team & Michael Cuddyer isn’t a good enough player to help them. The rest of the players are mediocre, outside of the days Jason Kubel decides to try.

4) Kansas City Royals 70-92 – the Royals have a budding star in Billy Butler. That’s about it. David DeJesus is a nice player but the team will most likely trade him away. They have no pitching staff with Greinke sent away. The bullpen is average, luckily the closer is one of the best in baseball.

5) Cleveland Indians 60-102 – the team has no talent outside of Carlos Santana. And for the life of me I can’t understand why he can’t stay healthy. Choo is overrated. The pitching staff is worse than the Phillies Double A rotation & the bullpen isn’t much better.

AL West:

1) Texas Rangers 89-73 – the Rangers win the division by default. The rest of the division has absolutely no talent. The Rangers rotation is good enough to win this division. The lineup will be even better this year. If they could add a decent first baseman, the team may win the most games in the league.

2) Oakland A’s 80-82 – the A’s don’t hit a lick but no matter what minor leaguers they call up to join the rotation they succeed. Luckily they play in a giant stadium, which is the reason these pitchers look so good. We must wait & see what minor league talent will have a career year for the A’s this season.

3) Los Angeles Angels of Anahiem 70-92 – the team is finally showing what losing countless good players & not replacing them does to a team. The rotation continues to deteriorate outside of Mr. Weaver & the lineup is terrible. Torii Hunter clearly wants out of LA since they moved him away from CF. To add to his frustration the team incompetently acquired Vernon Wells. Picking the team to win 70 games is a big stretch here due to their lack of talent.

4) Seattle Mariners 62-100 – quick outside of Felix Hernandez name a Seattle Mariners player. The rotation is terrible, the bullpen is non existent. And they have a lineup that rivals the Indians.

ALDS:

Detroit Tigers @ New York Yankees
Boston Red Sox @ Texas Rangers

ALCS:

Texas Rangers @ New York Yankees

NL East:

1) Philadelphia Phillies 119-43 – the Phillies won 97 games last season having Roy Oswalt for a few starts & relying heavily on Jamie Moyer & Kyle Kendrick. This year they have Oswalt for the entire season & added Cliff Lee. The only weakness on the entire team is in right field, solely because we don’t know if Dominic Brown is ready to be an every day player.

2) Florida Marlins 82-80 – the Marlins have the best pitcher in baseball in Josh Johnson & the best player in baseball in Hanley Ramirez. They don’t have much else but the team always seems to play better than they should.

3) Atlanta Braves 76-86 – the Braves have a great pitching staff & a pretty solid lineup. Their bullpen isn’t as dominant as it has been in recent years, but it should be good enough. The problem is they have a manager who isn’t very good, which limits their potential.

4) Washington Nationals 75-87 – the team is starting to build into a contender. The pitching staff has been upgraded & even though the team lost Adam Dunn they added Jayson Werth. The team could finish over .500 if the young players like Ian Desmond continue to develop.

5) New York Mets 68-94 – the New York Mets are an abysmal team. Their best player Jose Reyes hardly tries, their best pitcher they just signed & is coming off of major surgery & they have average players at nearly every position. The team will again rely on mediocre players like Angel Pagan to have career years in order to even be watchable.

NL Central:

1) Cincinnatti Reds 90-72 – the Reds have the best rotation in the division, which says more about the division than their rotation. The Reds also have the best lineup & bullpen in the division. Overall the division is the worst in baseball so they can quickly rack up wins.

2) St Louis Cardinals 80-82 – Pujols is giving ultimatums, the manager doesn’t want to be there any more & the team has two hitters worthy of a major league roster spot. They have two great starters & the pitching coach could get success out of a mule, but the bullpen is terrible & they don’t usually add talent during the year.

3) Chicago Cubs 75-87 – the Cubs are terrible. They have one starter, a good closer & a great third baseman. The third baseman can’t stay healthy, the starter is a nutjob & the closer can be erratic more often than not. Yet the team will beat up on the rest of the division.

4) Milwaukee Brewers 75-87 – the Brewers have quietly gained in the starting rotation department, assuming Greinke can succeed. The bullpen is still terrible & the team refuses to add talent. Chances are they trade at least Prince Fielder this season, losing one of their three good hitters.

5) Houston Astros 60-102 – there is no reason to assume the Astros will win 60 games considering they have no talent whatsoever, but they play the Pirates 19 times a year, which could result in 1/3rd of their wins. One of their pitchers should step up this season as well.

6) Pittsburgh Pirates 40-122 – trading Zach Duke was beyond incompetent. Now the team only has Andrew McCutcheon. The team will run out 24 Double A players when the season starts, then trade away any MLB talent they signed. Maybe Selig will contract them before we have an 0-162 team?

NL West:

1) Arizona Diamondbacks 84-78 – the Dbacks have the 2nd best lineup in the division. Their pitching is the 2nd best in the division as well. The main issue is their bullpen is the worst in baseball. The team needs to find a diamond in the rough that can save games & contribute to a decent bullpen.

2) San Francisco Giants 82-80 – the Giants have the second best rotation in baseball behind the Phillies. The Giants have the worst lineup in the division. An average bullpen that is dominant on the back end needs to be upgraded during the season.

3) Colorado Rockies 82-80 – the Rockies have the best overall team in the division, but they only realize the baseball season started in August which usually leaves them in too big a hole to crawl out of. Their bullpen is mediocre but they have the best lineup in the division. If they try in the first half of the season they could win the division easily.

4) Los Angeles Dodgers 80-82 – the Dodgers pitching staff is average, the bullpen is terrible & the lineup needs to rebound from a terrible season last year. New manager Don Mattingly should get the hitters back to form, but he can’t make the pitchers gain talent.

5) San Diego Padres 70-92 – the Padres overachieved beyond belief last year but faded down the stretch. By trading away their only decent hitter the team will have to win 1-0 every night. Since the team will be out of contention by June I expect them to trade Heath Bell & Mike Adams for mediocre talent, as they have done the last few years.

NLDS:

San Francisco Giants @ Philadelphia Phillies
Arizona Diamondbacks @ Cincinnati Reds

NLCS:

Cincinnati Reds @ Philadelphia Phillies

World Series:

Yankees @ Phillies

World Series Champions:

Yankees

Last week I went 3-1 in my picks, thanks bribed refs & Grizzly Bear went 1-3. This weekend things should be a bit easier to determine with only two games on the docket. Grizzly & I, as usual will provide our insight, but this week we have guest game picker Artemus J. Moleking submitting his picks.

Artemus J. Moleking’s Picks:

Artemus J. Moleking’s Comments:

No!

Grizzly Bear’s Picks:

Grizzly Bear’s Comments:

Bears beat Gbay when the game counted. Bears find a way to pull it out.

Jets will win, they will beat Big Ben the rapist silly.

And the Mannings will win.

Fred Mrmins’ Picks:

Fred Mrmins’ Comments:

If the Packers don’t win by at least three touchdowns I’d be very surprised. The Packers are far superior in every way, except kick/punt returns. Packers have a far superior QB, far superior WR, a better RB tandem in Starks/Kuhn & a more dominant defense. The Bears have an overrated front seven & a mediocre secondary. That is probably why only Artemus thinks they can win. Packers will win 48 – 17.

The Steelers needed the Ravens receiver to drop every important catch (nearly 10 dropped passes), Ray Rice’s first career fumble, & Joe Flacco to overthrow Todd Heap (underthrows are more normal for Flacco) resulting in an interception. They also needed refereeing only Tim Donaghy would approve of. After the Ravens received an early pass interference call against the Steelers the refs decided the Steelers must win the game & that they must help them. On the Steelers first series the Ravens were called for a phantom pass interference call resulting in the Steelers getting 7 points. Then the refs called the Ravens for a defensive lineman holding, which I’ve seen called three times in my life, resulting in 7 more points. Then on the Steelers game winning TD drive the refs failed to call offensive pass interference on the Steelers, instead calling pass interference on the Ravens when no one on the team was within 5 yards of the receiver. Then the refs decided not to care about the Steelers having two false starts before they scored, but the Steelers offensive line had 10 holds & 8 false starts, I don’t believe one was called.

It is extremely unlikely the NFL tells the refs to make sure the Steelers win again. But if they do, it is doubtful it will look as blatant as it did last week. The Steelers are an inferior team & would lose to every team left in the playoffs, so expect the refs to keep the Steelers in it, but the Jets will win 24 – 16.

Another week of playoff football, another week Grizzly Bear & I will attempt to show our football acumen. To recap last week we both went 2-2 due to the upsets the Jets & Seahawks pulled off.

Grizzly Bear’s Picks:

Grizzly Bear’s Commentary:

Ravens 15 Steelers 14

Packers 24 Falcons 27

Seahawks 19 Bears 10

Jets 21 Patriots 18

Fred Mrmins’ Picks:

Fred Mrmins’ Commentary:

Ravens 24 Steelers 16: The Ravens are abundantly better than the Steelers. I expect the Ravens to carve up a terrible Steelers seconday by doing something the Steelers can’t do – protect the QB. I also expect the game to be in hand in the 4th quarter with Big Ben chucking the ball all over the place scoring a late meaningless TD to make the score respectable.

Packers 34 Falcons 27: The Packers aren’t great at running the ball, but they don’t hide it. For as unstoppable as Clay Matthews has been all year people seem to forget the Packers have a pretty darn good secondary. I expect a back & forth battle which will come down to which QB can make more plays. Since Aaron Rodgers has had to make more plays all season long, I expect the same in this game.

Bears 28 Seahawks 12: I’m not insane like my dear friend Grizzly. I’m not going to jump on the Seahawks band wagon because Roman Harper of the Saints decided not to try last week because he clearly bet his entire life savings on a Seahawks victory. The Bears put forth a D effort vs the Seahawks in Week 6, which was the Seahawks last strong outing prior to last week’s win & the Seahawks barely won that game. A C+ effort from the Bears will allow them to advance against a terrible team.

Jets 38 Patriots 34: I have no reason whatsoever to believe the Jets will win this game. Mark Sanchez has had the two worst games of his career in Foxboro against the Patriots. And in his two seasons the Patriots have been an average defensive team. Yet something in my gut makes me feel the Jets will have to score a late TD to win & will do so. Unfortunately for Jets fans the ride will be over when the Ravens destroy them next week.

There you have it, the divisional dividends will pay off soon enough for four teams.

NFL Wild Card weekend is upon us. The 8 worse teams to make the playoffs square off to see if they can possibly knock off the 4 best playoff teams next weekend. The picks are in from Grizzly Bear & I.

Grizzly’s Comments:
Playoffs?
Talking about Playoffs?
Playoffs?

Grizzly Picks:

Fred’s Picks:
I expect the Saints to win 45-7. The Seahawks are probably the 3rd best team in the NFC West. They were already beaten badly this year by the Saints, and this beating will be even worse.
The Colts aren’t as dominant as they used to be but I still think they’ll win 33-31. Manning is far superior to Mark Sanchez & the Colts kicker is a Hall of Famer, while the Jets kicker is as good as I am, so chances are it will come down to a late field goal.
I expect the Ravens to win 24-0. The Chiefs, like the Seahawks, are the 3rd best team in their division. The Ravens will stop the run without issue & Cassel & Co. cannot win a game, as we’ve seen all year.
Pack wins 31-17. The Packers destroyed the Eagles defensively in Week 1. Michael Vick can be rattled, Aaron Rodgers cannot be rattled. The Packers also have Clay Matthews on defense, who has been the most productive defensive player all season.

ESPN, like FOX Sports, hires a bunch of former football players who don’t necessarily have the intelligence required to serve an announcers role on television. More often I watch telecasts thinking I know more about the sport then those announcing it.

As well as being incompetent some ESPN announcers/reporters don’t seem to know the difference between right & wrong. Whether it’s been an announcer screaming at unconscious players to get up or the constant news of inappropriate sexual behavior it’s no shock we have more such news.

Jeanine Edwards, who only die hard ESPN fans have ever heard of, was spoken to inappropriately by my brother’s favorite announcer Ron Franklin. Franklin supposed told Edwards “Why don’t you let the big boys handle this, sweet baby?” When Edwards expressed her disapproval for the commentary Franklin retorted “okay then, EXPLETIVE.”

Supposedly ESPN pulled Franklin from their Fiesta Bowl announcing booth, which no one noticed or cared. On Tuesday ESPN announced it has fired Ron Franklin. He will land somewhere despite being a pig. Intriguing though what ESPN’s standards are. Fire Phillips, Reynolds & Franklin but keep Kornheiser. Guess if the common person has heard of you, then you are safe.

The San Francisco 49ers fired Mike Singletary before the last game of the season due to the team’s inability to go 7-9 to win the division. A win against the Rams in Week 16 would’ve won them the division, a loss cost him his job.

Now the 49ers are exploring the possibility of bringing in Stanford’s Harbaugh, among other candidates to become the new head coach of the team. While the 49ers claim they have the money to hire any one to coach the team, they have hired nothing but inexperienced NFL head coaches since firing “Mooch” – the last time the team was relevant.

Another team that hasn’t been relevant in sometime is the Carolina Panthers. John Fox once brought this terrible team to a Super Bowl. Since the GM wants the team to go 2-14 every year he has continually made terrible drafts & bad free agent plays. As a result John Fox was not in good shape.

The Panthers officially fired Fox after the end of the regular season. Fox managed to coach a bunch of minor league talent to defensive respectability. Unfortunately since WR Steve Smith refused to try all season the offense was terrible. It didn’t help their two star running backs were injured much of the year.

The Panthers are in desperate need of an offensive overhaul. They also need to trade Steve Smith as he isn’t even the best Steve Smith in the NFL right now. The team will most likely hire a coach no one has ever heard about & will be even less competitive next year. Sorry Panthers fans!

The New Jersey Devils, after a decade of dominance, are currently the worst team in hockey. As a result they’ve fired John McLean & brought back Jacques Lemaire.

The team hired McLean after Lemaire retired last year but a slew of injuries, most notably to Hall of Famer Marty Brodeur the Devils have looked & played sluggishly in every game this season.

Thus far not much has changed since Lemaire replaced McLean behind the bench. Many Devils fans are currently in a state of shock. The team has been dominant for over a decade & all of a sudden the team is somehow worse than the New York Islanders, a team that admits it doesn’t try.

We here at Sports News Center are even more shocked. Earlier this year we predicted McLean was the favorite to become the Devils head coach. Apparently an aging team that stopped playing defense failed to adjust to his schemes.