Winning The Turnover Battle

College Football Blotter Report: Reality Check

2009-10-17T13:55:00.002-05:00

At the close of the weekend, most college football teams have now played half their season. So what have we learned? What stories are people not recognizing?

1. Tim Tebow is out of the Heisman race: This one must be confusing to most people. Sports Illustrated still says Tebow is in the lead. ESPN says he is in the lead. The truth however, is that no sane voter could even give Tebow a 5th place vote if the season finished today. He has had fewer than 200 total yards in three of his five games this season. His passing numbers are way off; he is only on pace to throw for 1900 yards this year. In comparison, in his Heisman season Tebow threw for 3200 yards and had ZERO, count em, ZERO games with fewer than 200 total yards. The other huge factor working against Tebow is that he has already blown one of what may only be three Heisman showcase performances. The Gators may have won, but Tebow was unimpressive against LSU: 172 total yards, 1 TD and 1 INT. Unless Tebow goes on a historic passing stretch and has a huge SEC championship game, not only does he not have any business winning the Heisman, he doesn't even deserve to be invited to New York as a finalist.

2. Colt McCoy is close to being out of the race too: Against the fluffy part of his schedule, McCoy has ranked as only the 22nd QB in the nation in QB efficiency. He has also thrown at least one interception every single game. (He has 6 INTs already, while he only had 8 all of last year) And on top of that, McCoy is putting up poor rushing numbers, averaging only 11 yards a game. (McCoy ran for over 500 yards each of the past two seasons) While McCoy has been middling thus far, unlike Tebow he has not wasted any of his showcase games as of yet, and could still jump back into the race with big games against the two Oklahoma schools. On the other hand, losing to a 3-2 Oklahoma team next week could knock him out of the race completely.

3. Iowa's resume is stronger than most think: Iowa has been a hard team to peg this year. One week they almost lose to a I-AA team; the next they are trashing an in-state rival by 30 points on the road. One week they are beating a top 5 team on the road; the next they are holding on for dear life against a Sun Belt team. So what do we know about this team? While the style points haven't been there, the resume speaks for itself; wins against 3-3 Iowa State, 3-2 Arizona, 5-1 Penn State, and 4-2 Michigan give Iowa four victories against average to above average BCS teams. Hard to argue with that.

4. TCU is going to have a better BCS case than Boise: Take a look at the schedules of Boise and TCU. If they both go undefeated, which resume looks better? TCU will have road wins against two ACC teams, a road win against BYU, and a win against Utah. Boise will have a win against Oregon, and.....and.....that's it. If Boise gets to a BCS game this year, they will be the second non-BCS school to sneak its way into the big time with close to zero on their resume (Hawaii 2007).

On the Field Heisman Rankings:
The Heisman race continues to be completely unpredictable this year, as it seems that every week a new contender falters. This week it was Greg McElroy posting a poor performance to push him out for the time being.

1. Tony Pike, Cincy: A bit of a ho-hum performance for Pike this week against Miami (Oh), but when 270 yards and 2 TDs is an off day, I think it speaks to how good of a season Pike is having.

2. Jimmy Clausen, Notre Dame: I really hate to put Clausen up this high before the USC game, but with a lack of strong candidates Clausen's numbers are just too huge to ignore at this point in the season. Clausen leads the nation in passing efficiency and has 1544 yards and 12 TDs in 5 games this year, albeit against weak competition.

3. Ryan Williams, Virginia Tech: Williams keeps hanging around the Heisman discussion, and the Freshman's performance is becoming harder and harder to ignore. Williams had 182 total yards and a TD against Boston College this week, and ranks fifth in the nation in rushing yards.

4. Jaquizz Rodgers, Oregon State: Quizz has quietly been racking up TDs all season for the Beavers, and added 4 more this past week against Stanford to go along with 271 total yards. A monster performance like that combined with Rodger's 13 TDs so far this year deserves at leas a one week stay in the rankings.

College Football Blotter Report: The Troy Smith Blueprint

2009-10-04T01:25:00.001-05:00

The year is 2006. Going into the college football season the Heisman favorite is an Oklahoma Sooner (Adrian Peterson). One of the other favorites is the Senior quarterback for the Florida Gators (Chris Leak). The Sooner gets injured early in the year and is knocked out of the race. The Senior Gator QB never quite lives up to expectations. As a result, the Heisman Trophy goes to the efficient, but not spectacular, QB of the undefeated Ohio State Buckeyes, Troy Smith.

Flash forward to 2009. Going into the college football season the Heisman favorite is an Oklahoma Sooner (Sam Bradford). One of the other favorites is the Senior quarterback for the Florida Gators (Tim Tebow). The Sooner gets injured early in the year and is knocked out of the race. The Senior Gator QB has not quite lived up to expectations. As a result, by the end of the year the Heisman Trophy could wind up going to this year's version of Troy Smith 2006: the efficient, but not spectacular, QB of the undefeated Alabama Crimson Tide, Greg McElroy.

In 2006 Smith benefited from a college football landscape where none of the preseason favorites for the Heisman played up to their hype, and his two biggest competitors at the end of the season (Darren McFadden and Brady Quinn) wound up playing for teams with multiple losses. Because of the field dropping back, Smith was able to win the Heisman with a season that looks a bit odd in hindsight for a Heisman winner:

- One 300 yard game

- Six games with under 200 yards passing

- 2500 passing yards

- Less than 3000 total yards

So how did Smith win it? Other than leading OSU to an unblemished record, only one individual stat stood out for Smith; his sterling touchdown to interception ratio, 30/5. Other than that, Smith was downright pedestrian. He was 38th in the nation in passing yards, and was only only fourth in his own league (behind the likes of Curtis Painter, Brian Cupito, and Drew Tate).

Smith's victory in 2006 is a blueprint for how Heisman voters react to a year without a clear cut winner; they go safe. Starting QB for the #1 team in the country is about as safe as it gets. The same thing happens in other sports as well; no clear cut MVP in baseball? High RBI guy on the best team in the league. No clear cut Cy Young winner? Pitcher with the most wins for a playoff team. No clear cut NFL MVP? Starting QB for the team with the best record. And on and on it goes.

As this year has unfolded, two things are clear in the Heisman race; the presumptive favorites are not playing as expected (Bradford, Tebow, McCoy), and nobody is stepping up to fill their place. Because of this, McElroy is in prime position to follow the Troy Smith blueprint and steal the Heisman.

Think about it; McElroy is averaging roughly 220 yards and two TDs a game, while having only thrown one INT through five games. Stretching that production out over the entire season (including an SEC championship game), McElroy's stats would wind up looking a whole lot like Smith's did in 2006; 2800 total yards, 27 total TDs, and 3 INTs. If the other contenders continue to falter (Bradford, Jacory Harris, Jahvid Best, Max Hall, and Case Keenum have all already been bounced), McElroy could find himself with the Heisman Trophy come December.

Rank Me Please

If the teams below are not ranked come tomorrow, it is about time to call your local AP voter and start lodging complaints:

1. Auburn 5-0: The Mighty Malzahns took down Tennessee Saturday night to earn their second SEC victory of the year. Those two wins coupled with a win against West Virginia and one of the nation's most prolific offenses leaves little excuse for poll voters to leave Auburn off of their ballots this week.

2. South Florida 5-0: When Matt Grothe went down in the Bulls third game of the year, most people wrote off the Bulls in the Big East. Little did they realize, the Bulls had just as dynamic of a QB waiting in the wings in BJ Daniels. The Bulls have two BCS conference wins and three road wins on their resume.

3. Wisconsin 5-0: The Badgers have shown an uncanny ability to reload year after year and keep winning. Case in point; Scott Tolzien is the 4th different starting QB in the last four years for the Badgers. Wisconsin finds themselves at 5-0, with two Big Ten wins plus a victory over Fresno State.

On the Field Heisman Rankings

Excuse me sir, could I interest you in a Heisman? It seems like nobody wants to win the trophy this year, as contender after contender falls by the wayside. Last week it was Jacory Harris and Jahvid Best posting poor performances in losses, and this week Case Keenum and the Houston Cougars lost to a UTEP team that was drilled into the ground the week before. (While Keenum did throw for over 500 yards in the game, one simple fact remains; Heisman winners don't lose to UTEP)

So where does that leave us? As discussed above, it allows Greg McElroy to continue sneaking up the board, while also opening up spots for some big stat guys. Going forward, it also allows for Tebow and McCoy to jump right back into the race, with each having a showcase game coming up in the next two weeks (Tebow vs LSU, and McCoy vs Oklahoma).

1. Tony Pike, Cincy: Seriously, is Pike the only guy that wants the trophy? Pike continued his sterling season with 270 yards and 2 TDs against Miami (OH). His next game should be his national coming out party; a nationally televised Thursday nighter on October 15th pitting his 5-0 Bearcats against BJ Daniels and the 5-0 USF Bulls.

2. Greg McElroy, Alabama: Another game, another win, another two TDs for McElroy. Next week will provide him with his first big test since the opener against Virginia Tech, as he and the Tide travel to Oxford to play Ole Miss.

3. Jimmy Clausen, Notre Dame: At some point Clausen and his video game numbers are too hard to ignore on a 4-1 team, averaging over 300 yards and two TDs per game. You do have to worry however, about the fact that Notre Dame has had to pull out dramatics each of the past three weeks to win by one score against three teams with a combined record of 5-10. With USC and Boston College coming up next, Clausen's stay on the Heisman list could be a short one.

4. Toby Gerhart, Stanford: Gerhart led the Cardinal to a big win this week over previously undefeated UCLA with 158 total yards and three TDs. Gerhart now leads the nation with 650 rushing yards to go along with eight TDs.

Type your summary here

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College Football Blotter Report: Preseason-itis Attacks

2009-09-27T12:09:00.006-05:00

Chaos abounded this week, as 6 of the 23 ranked teams that played falling prey to the upset bug. Or the flu bug perhaps. Or maybe even more accurately, they fell victim to the #1 cause of early season upsets; Preseason-itis.

To understand what Preseason-itis is, you must first comprehend what an upset is. On its most basic level in college football, an upset is when a game occurs wherein a ranked team loses to either a lower ranked team or an unranked team. Well, duh. You see, I have to elucidate this point because otherwise some people may not comprehend why a game like Ole' Miss losing to South Carolina was a huge upset. The #4 team in the country losing to an unranked team that had already lost once this season? Huge upset, right?

Nope.

Two pesky things get in the way of calling the Ole' Miss loss an upset; facts and logic. These two teams played last year, returned all of the same core players (minus Ole' Miss losing two first round NFL draft picks), and the result was exactly the same as it was last year; a one score South Carolina victory. So if this same Ole' Miss team lost to this same South Carolina team, why was there such a huge disparity in their rankings?

Preseason-itis.

My number one pet peeve in college football is early season polls. With the presence of these polls, voters will fall victim to one of three basic human instincts in their voting, which completely skew having an accurate poll early in the season:

1. The Desire to be Right: Filling out a ballot is a significant investment of time and reputation for a voter. So when someone goes out and puts a team like Florida #1 on their ballot in the preseason, naturally they will want to keep them there until they lose. Even if after 4 weeks it is obvious to everyone in the country that this is not the same Florida team as last year, and that Alabama is going to steamroll them by four TDs in the SEC Championship Game. (Purely hypothetical of course) This is the same kind of thinking that is occurring right now to fantasy football owners; I am certain that there are those of you out there that are holding on to LT right now, even though every logical bone in your body is telling you he is not going to do anything this year, because dammit, you spent a 3rd round pick on him and you don't want to look like an idiot.

The symptom that arises from this aspect of Preseason-itis, is the gradual creep of unworthy teams up the polls, sometimes to absurd heights. This year has seen three such instances already. Ole' Miss had ZERO reason for being ranked #4 in the country, Penn State had no business being #5, and LSU has no business being #7, much less getting moved up one or two spots this week because the two aforementioned impostors were exposed ahead of them this week. All three of these teams were able to attain these heights though, because for voters to drop them while they were winning would be to admit the one thing nobody likes to admit; that they were wrong.

2. Pack Mentality: There is a certain magic to poll voting in college football. Somehow the AP Poll, the Coaches Poll, the Harris Poll, and heck, even the "Blogger Poll" on CBS Sportsline, look stunningly alike. Why is that? Did all of these diverse groups of people make the same mistake of putting faith in Ole Miss? In Oklahoma State? In Penn State? In some ways yes, put in one big way, no. They made a different mistake; they wanted to be like everyone else. So they look at the other polls from the week before and they slot winners up (even if they looked bad) and slot winners down (even if they looked good), because that is what the group-think decrees. The reason for this is because going out on a limb is scary, and people tend to point and laugh when you do. For example, Doug Lesmerises was killed in the media this week because he casts a daring, reactive ballot in the AP poll. He committed such acts of blasphemy as ranking Florida #5 (gasp!) and ranking USC as #25 (the horror!). Funny thing is though...want to know two of the teams Doug had ranked lower than almost anyone? Penn State and Ole' Miss, who coincidentally both got "upset" this week. Mr. Lesmerises isn't looking so dumb now, is he?

3. Voting for the Story: Ah, now we are on to the big elephant in the room. Everyone sees it. Everyone knows it. Nobody wants to admit they are going it though. Why is Boise State ranked 8th in the country? Why was a garbage Notre Dame team ranked 18th earlier this year? Why was USC ranked 3rd earlier this year, after losing their starting QB, top 2 two WRs, and almost their entire linebacking corps from last year? Simply put, voters vote for the story many times, not for the teams. Non-BCS team making noise? That's a story. Perennial power rising in the rankings coming off a bad year (Notre Dame, Michigan)? That's a story.

Now here is a story nobody is talking about; for all intents and purposes, as a result of Preseason-itis, Boise State has already clinched a BCS berth. What? Boise is already solidly within the top 12, and does not have a single scary opponent left on their schedule. So on the strength of beating one ranked team (at home mind you), Boise is going to go to a BCS Bowl. The only worse case of this phenomenon was in 2007, when Hawaii went to a BCS bowl in a year when their best non-conference win was against a 4-9 PAC-10 team. Yes, that actually happened.

You see, voting on Boise this year has exhibited all three symptoms of Preseason-itis. They were ranked 14th going into the season, so they have moved up because people want to be right. They are staying in the top ten because of the pack mentality. And they are most clearly a result of voting for the story (you don't think voters aren't thinking of that Orange Bowl upset every-time they vote for Boise?), because their ranking falls victim to one huge logical flaw; they should be ranked behind TCU. Why? Well, TCU was ranked higher than Boise at the end of last year, and in fact BEAT Boise just 9 months ago in a bowl game. Yet somehow both teams are undefeated, but Boise is ranked 7 spots higher. Why? They are a better story than a TCU team that the country is not familiar with, that's why. The real problem is that if TCU does go undefeated, they would have a much stronger resume than Boise (@UVA, @Clemson, @BYU, and vs. Utah), but would fail to get a BCS bid due to poor voting habits. And that would be a true shame.

Unranked Victims of Preseason-itis:

To stay on the theme, here are four teams that should be ranked, but are being held out of the polls:

1. Iowa: While Iowa will probably be ranked by the end of the day due to their upset of Penn State, they should have already been ranked, and ranked highly. Why? Take a look at their schedule. They are 4-0, with wins over Penn State, Iowa State, and Arizona. Ok, who cares about Iowa State and Arizona? Voters should; the four teams that Iowa has beat this season are a combined 12-0 this year against teams not named Iowa. Now there is some food for thought.

2. Auburn: Auburn is 4-0, with a trip to Tennessee this week that should be another easy victory. So far this season they have defeated two BCS teams (Miss. State and West Va.), and have shown an explosive offense that has gone for totals of 37, 41, 49, and 54 points so far this season. You are telling me this team isn't better than Nebraska or UNC?

3. Wisconsin: Wisconsin always plays ugly football. They play defense, and grind it out on the ground on offense. As a result, voters never think of them as a sexy pick. The Badgers stand at 4-0 this year, playing their typical brand of un-sexy football while beating Michigan State and Fresno State already this year.

4. South Carolina: The other USC's only sin this season has been a 4 point loss on the road to a pretty good Georgia team. Other than that, they have beat a better than you think NC State team on the road, as well as "upset" #4 Ole' Miss. How are they not ranked?

On the Field Heisman Rankings:

Oh how the mighty have fallen. A big shakeup in the rankings this week, as Jacory Harris and Jahvid Best both had disastrous days in upset losses to fall out of the rankings. The real story in the Heisman race however, is that there is no story. Nobody seems to want the darn thing this year. Colt McCoy keeps throwing Interceptions. Tim Tebow has not had a single Heisman worthy game. Sam Bradford has missed to much time already to even be considered. So who is left? Tony Pike actually, the only man in the country that has looked like a Heisman winner every week thus far:

1. Tony Pike, Cincy: Pike's resume gets stronger and stronger every week. Adding to his 300+ yard, 3 TD performances over Rutgers and Oregon State earlier this season, Pike put in another outstanding performance against Fresno State. Pike passed for 300 yards and 3 TDs and added another 22 yards on the ground.

2. Case Keenum, Houston: Things didn't look too good for Case, down 28-23 to Texas Tech in the 4th quarter last night. Keenum didn't crack under pressure though, leading the Cougars on a game winning drive late in the 4th to pull ahead 29-28 against the Red Raiders. Keenum put up his typical video game numbers (457 total yards, 2 total TDs) and now has two big time performances against Big 12 teams on his resume.

3. Ryan Williams, Virginia Tech: You might be shocked to see Williams here, but the numbers don't lie; in three games against ranked opponents so far this year he has put up 412 total yards and 5 TDs. Pretty good for a Freshman that only got the job due to an injury to the incumbent.

4. Greg McElroy, Alabama: McElroy is ranked 3rd in the country in QB rating (first amongst BCS QBs) and has looked deadly for what I believe is the best team in the country. With wins against Virginia Tech and Arkansas on his resume, he is looking as good as any QB in the country.

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College Football Blotter Report: Reveal Week

2009-09-20T10:41:00.011-05:00

So this was Revenge Week eh? You know, the week where Urban Meyer was supposed to pound Lane Kiffin, Pete Carroll was supposed to trash Steve Sarkisian, and Texas was supposed to show Texas Tech the pain of missing out on a national title shot last year. That was this week right?

Whoops.

Revenge Week (you have to love ESPN for those monikers right?) evidently didn't get the invitation to the party, and at the last second another guest arrived; Reveal Week. You see, the casual fan was stunned by this week's developments. USC losing to a Washington team that was 0-11 last year? BYU getting thrashed by a Florida State squad that looked horrible against a I-AA school last week (I will never use FC$ by the way)? Florida having a much tighter game than expected? All shockers. The truth though, is that all of these results merely revealed truths that were already evident to people willing to look at the play on the field this season rather than the names on the jerseys (I'm looking at you poll voters).

First off, USC is not an elite team; not even close. After watching the USC-OSU game last week I texted a friend of mine that is a huge OSU fan to let him know what I got out of watching the game; neither team has any business being in a BCS bowl. This year's incarnation of USC is not a good offensive team. Period. They lost two of their best WRs from last year (one to injury) along with a QB that was a top 10 draft pick, and replaced that trio with a true freshman at QB and two WRs that combined for six catches last year. Why exactly were they expected to be a great offensive team this year? Oh yeah, I forgot, this is USC, and they are always good. Silly me.

And lest I forget, Matt Barkley is the next Joe Montana. I mean, he played so great in that OSU game, and led them to victory on a last second drive!

Except...that never happened.

You see, a ruse was perpetrated on the American public last week. The sports media collectively took a dead cat and tried to sell us a mink coat. The ruse: Matt Barkley had a great game, showed great poise, and was the hero of the comeback drive against OSU. The reality: Barkley had a bad game, and Joe McKnight was the hero of the winning drive. Seriously, did anyone watch that game? Just as a refresher, here are Barkley's stats:

15-31, 195 yards, 0 TDs, 1 INT

Just look at those for a second, and I think you'll see what I see. Under 50% passing? Check. Under 200 yards? Check. Negative TD/INT ratio? Check. Color me confused, but I do not understand how this performance was being billed as a breakout performance for Barkley. The numbers don't lie; he played poorly. In the wake of USC's loss to Washington, almost every story on the game has noted that the 13 points and 110 passing yards are historic lows for the Trojans. Not a single story noted that those numbers were only slightly worse than last week's performance of 18 points and 195 passing yards. What that tells me (sorry Trojan fans) is that USC's passing offense is not going to get much better once Barkley returns. USC has five tough games left on their schedule (@Cal, @Notre Dame, Oregon State, @Oregon, UCLA), and it would be no surprise if they lost more than one of them.

Now that we have seen why USC losing should not have been totally unexpected, why exactly did Florida have so much trouble with Tennessee? Same song, second verse my friends. Just as voters seemed to ignore that USC lost Mark Sanchez and Patrick Turner and had little to replace them, they have also ignored the fact that Florida lost play-makers. In Percy Harvin and Louis Murphy, the Gators lost their top two receivers from a year ago, along with their top rusher not named Tebow. And the guy that was supposed to step in and be Percy Harvin 2.0, Andre Debose? Season ending surgery without playing a down. Still curious about why the Gators didn't throw 50 on the Vols? Short answer; they couldn't. This Gators team is all Tebow, all the time. Do you think SEC teams are really scared of Riley Cooper and David Nelson? Nah, me either.

While Florida should easily win the SEC East, they won't escape a schedule with LSU, Georgia, Arkansas, South Carolina, and Florida State without a loss, and I doubt they have the firepower to beat Alabama in an SEC title game match-up. This Florida team looks a lot more like the 9-4 team of two years ago than the 13-1 squad of last year. At some point the voters will recognize that fact.

What You Weren't Watching:

I must confess, I have a guilty pleasure when it comes to college football. I love watching the bottom of the Top 25 throughout the season. The overachievers. The underachievers. The comeback kids. Most years, teams 21-25 are exponentially more entertaining than teams 1-5. And this week featured one of my favorite types of games; a Top 25 play-in game. Didn't see it on the schedule? Oh, it was there. Auburn-West Virgina. Two BCS conference teams in similar states of transition that found themselves at 2-0, coming off disappointing seasons and featuring question marks at key positions. For WVU; can Jarrett Brown be the next Pat White? For Auburn; can Gus Malzahn work his wizardy as offensive coordinator on an offense that was putrid last year? The winner would find themselves at 3-0, and most likely comfortably nestled into the 24th or 25th spot in the polls, after Nebraska, Utah, Georgia Tech, and Oregon State lost earlier in the day.

(Side-note: Why are people pretending Mizzou is a ranked team? They lost the two best players off a 10-4 team that lost to almost every good team they played, and have a three game stretch coming up of Nebraska-Oklahoma State-Texas. They are going 0-3 in those games, take it to the bank.)

Auburn prevailed in a shootout 41-30, a third straight impressive offensive performance for the Mighty Malzahns of Auburn Land. With a horrible Ball State team coming to town next week followed by a trip to offensively crippled Tennessee (do you think Jonathan Crompton is going to lead the Vols to 30-40 points in a single SEC game this season?), the Tigers are poised to be 5-0 heading into mid-October. Pretty good for a team that went 5-7 last year.

On the Field Heisman Rankings:

So what exactly do I mean by "on the field"? Simply put, these rankings don't factor in last year, two years ago, who you play for, or what people expected before the season. The obvious difference between these rankings and most out right now, is that you are going to see a distinct lack of Tebow and McCoy. Both QBs had their first marquee chances of the season this week, and both disappointed. Tebow had under 200 total yards against Tennessee with no passing TDs and an interception. McCoy only had 210 total yards while also posting a negative TD/INT ratio against Texas Tech. You won't see either of these guys in my rankings until they earn it on the field. Now, on to the rankings:

1. Jacory Harris, Miami (Fl.): This one is a no brainer. Two nationally televised games against ranked conference opponents. Two upset wins. Two 3 TD games by the precocious sophomore Harris. And guess what? Harris has his third straight chance this week, with another national TV shot against a ranked conference opponent in Virginia Tech.

2. Jahvid Best, Cal: In each of his first three games this year, Best has gone for 140+ yards from scrimmage and multiple TDs, highlighted by his scoring of all 5 TDs against Minnesota this weekend. Three straight big games, including two non-conference wins against BCS conference opponents, means Best is having the er...best start by any running back in the country.

3. Tony Pike, Cincy: While nobody has been watching, Pike has orchestrated two big road wins for the Bearcats, trashing Big East favorite Rutgers in Week 1 and topping a ranked Oregon State team this weekend, going for 330+ yards and 3 TDs in both contests. The only QB with a more impressive set of victories is Harris, and that is why he is #1.

4. Case Keenum, Houston: The rest of the Heisman conversation belongs to the stat kings, and Keenum has the advantage of being the only big number passer with a marquee victory this season, going for 366 yards and 4 total TDs in upsetting Oklahoma State last week.

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Fantasy Football Cheat Sheet: Steal The Raiders

2007-08-28T00:26:00.000-05:00

Fantasy Football Cheat Sheet: The Myth Of LJ

2007-08-25T14:23:00.000-05:00

They Say Timing Is Everything...

2007-08-23T13:37:00.000-05:00

August 15th: Former NBA referee Tim Donaghy pleas guilty to felony charges and admits that he provided insider information about player injuries and official assignments to gamblers. Donaghy also admits that he had been betting on NBA games, including ones he had officiated, since 2003.

August 17th: Former NHL player and Phoenix Coyotes assistant Rick Tocchet is sentenced to two years probation for his involvement in an illegal gambling ring that saw millions of dollars bet on various sports.

August 22nd: AEG and Harrah's hold a press conference to announce that they are building a $500 million arena in Las Vegas set to open in 2010, with hopes of convincing an NBA and/or NHL team to come to Vegas.

Is it just me, or does the timing of this announcement seem...awful? Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think the NBA is going to go anywhere near Las Vegas for years. Not after the Donaghy scandal, and especially not after the violent debacle that was the NBA's All-Star Weekend. (We all do remember that is where Pacman's infamous strip club shooting took place, yes?)

There are three major problems in sports today; performance enhancers, athlete's bad behavior, and gambling. Vegas is known for fostering two of those three things. In fact, Vegas wouldn't even exist today if it wasn't for gambling and bad behavior. So at a time when the NBA is fighting a huge PR battle in the wake of a gambling scandal, these businessmen thought it would be a great idea to start building an arena aimed at getting an NBA team? Can I get an honorary MBA just for noting that this is an awful idea?

The NHL angle is slightly different, though just as bad. In all honesty, the NHL would likely jump at the chance to go to Vegas. Word on the street is that the NHL is attempting to expand by two more teams in the coming years, and if Vegas wants them the NHL would most likely come. The problem with that is the NHL is bleeding money. The TV ratings are almost non-existent. Attendance is down. Players are starting to leave for Russia to make more money. And somehow the NHL's solution to these problems is to expand? To dillute an already thinning talent pool? If this Vegas arena stakes itself to the NHL, it very well could go down with the ship. Hockey has already slipped to at least 4th on the American pro sports radar (behind NASCAR) and is perilously close to being overtaken by MMA with no signs of anything getting better.

Can someone please explain to me how building this $500 million arena is a good idea...at all?

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Worst. Draft. EVER.

2007-08-21T23:33:00.000-05:00

Last night SportsCenter ran their highly publicized fantasy football draft special. The idea was to have some of ESPN's football analysts do a draft so that the viewing audience could garner some insight from the "experts". It sounds like a great idea, except what actually transpired was far from what was intended.

What happened last night, was perhaps the worst fantasy football draft of all time.

The panel consisted of Chris Mortenson, Jerry O'Connell, Steve Young, Mark Schlereth, Sean Salisbury, Nick Bakay, Cato June, and Michael A. Smith. Out of that group it was glaringly obvious that only Schlereth knew much of anything about fantasy football. Just take a gander at what all of their rosters ended up looking like.

The odd final rosters only tell half the story however, as the draft itself saw the participants break almost every single rule in fantasy football. They drafted QBs in the first round. They drafted kickers before the final round. They didn't go 1-2 with RBs. They valued WRs over RBs. To put it simply, any of these guys would have finished dead last in even the most average of fantasy leagues. To explain why, here is a detailed look at some of the more horriffic mistakes that were made during the draft:

Round 1:

- Sean Salisbury selects Laurence Maroney at #5. Pretty odd considering the fact that Maroney is projected by anyone with half of a brain to be somewhere in the 8-12 range, not anywhere near #5.

- Peyton Manning goes to his former teammate Cato June at #7 which isn't really that bad considering it is an 8 team league. What happened after that however, has caused me to lose any faith in Michael A. Smith's sports knowledge. Smith was picking at the turn and had picks #8 and #9. With at least 5 elite fantasy RBs still on the board, Smith took Carson Palmer and Marvin Harrison 8-9. I repeat, Michael A. Smith went QB-WR in the first two rounds, and the QB was not Peyton Manning. Michael A. Smith knows as much about fantasy football as your grandmother, and maybe less.

Round 2:

- Cato June follows Smith's moronic moves by taking Thomas Jones at #10. Jones is not a bad fantasy back, but the pick is horrendous considering the other RBs that were still available, including...

- Shaun Alexander, who is selected at #13 by Mark Schlereth. Again, I reiterate; Schlereth is the only one in this thing with any fantasy knowledge at all.

Round 3:

- To lead off the 3rd round the 17th and 18th picks are Marc Bulger and Antonio Gates. Now, those would be good picks in a 10 or 12 team draft...if they were leading off the 4th round, with picks in the 40's. I would wager that this might be the only fantasy football draft in the nation not conducted by 9 year olds that will have Bulger and Gates both go in the top 20.

- Just so they can say that they broke the rule, our group of dunces engages in a WR position run in the 3rd round with Torry Holt, Chad Johnson, Steve Smith, and Roy Williams going between picks 20 and 24.

Round 4:

- Our motley crew enjoyed having a position run in the 3rd round so much that they have another position run in the 4th round. This time it is the QBs, with Drew Brees, Jon Kitna, Tom Brady, and Donovan McNabb going in order from picks 27-30. Yes, that does in fact mean that Kitna was drafted at #28. Just awful.

Round 5:

- I am guessing that nobody informed these 8 guys that fantasy football success is almost entirely dependent on having good RBs. Evidently someone lied to them and told them that WRs were the key, as they engage in a SECOND WR position run in the 5th round, with T.J. Houshmandzadeh, Reggie Wayne, Larry Fitzgerald, Terrell Owens, Andre Johnson, and Marques Colston going in order from picks 34-39. Yes, that means that in the first 40 picks there were two WR position runs and a QB position run.

Round 6:

- Running backs? Who ever heard of drafting running backs? The awful aversion to the best position in fantasy football continues in round 6, as 7 of the 8 picks in the round are either WRs or TEs. The only sane person is Schlereth, who snatches up Clinton Portis all the way at #45.

- As for the crazy people, Michael (knows less than grandma) Smith picks up Vernon Davis with pick #41, followed by Jeremy Shockey going to Cato June with the very next pick.

- With the 45th pick Sean Salisbury takes Calvin Johnson, about 40-60 picks too soon.

Round 7:

- The position breakdown for the eight picks in round 7: 4 TEs, 2 D/ST, 2 WRs. That's right, no RBs taken between picks 49 and 56, and only one taken between picks 41-57. To understand just how bad this is, just take a gander at what happened in...

Round 8:

- So who are the RBs that are left? Julius Jones comes off the board at #58. Marshawn Lynch is picked at #62. Fred Taylor is selected at #64. It is criminal that those three lasted this long, but not nearly as bad as the fact that...

- Ronnie Brown lasts until pick #59. No, that is not a typo. That really is Ronnie Brown, at #59. The same Ronnie Brown that is being selected in the first round in some 10-12 team leagues, and the second round in every other league. The ONLY way I can explain this oversight is that the ESPN crew just forgot. It woudn't be the first time an ESPN crew forgot about a player during a draft show. Remember when Mel Kiper and company completely forgot Amobi Okoye during their mock draft show?

Round 9:

- The misses just keep on coming, as the Patriots and Chargers D/ST are selected before Ahman Green in round 9.

Round 10:

- Cato June selects Adam Vinatieri at #74. Evidently he thought that Michael A. Smith was getting too much of a lead in the "Dumbest Drafter" category and felt like he had to play catch up.

- Jamal Lewis and Jerrious Norwood finally come off the board at picks #77 and #79. Watching these "experts" do a fantasy draft is like watching a dating advice show hosted by Screech and Bill Nye the Science Guy.

Round 11:

- Round 11 sees yet another 8 picks go by without a RB being chosen, although Nick Bakay does see fit to draft Rex Grossman at #86. Yes, that sentence does mean that Rex Grossman was drafted in an 8 team fantasy league. It was the first and last time.

Round 12:

- DeAngelo Williams goes off the board at #96...finally.

Round 13:

- With all of the QBs, WRs, TEs, and D/ST that have already come off the board, you just know there is still a RB left. And...yep, there he is. Steve Young selects Carnell Williams at #99. Just to recap, a starting RB with little to no competition was drafted after 3 kickers, 5 defenses, and Rex Grossman. It is now official; ESPN's football analysts are NOT smarter than a 5th grader.

Round 14:

- Nick Bakay, the man who drafted Rex Grossman, follows up that stroke of brilliance by picking Eric Johnson with the 107th pick. If you were wondering, Johnson is a TE for the Saints.

Round 15:

- Finally, this thing is almost over. The dunces won't go down without a fight though, as they reveal their final ace when Cato June picks Chester Taylor with the second to last pick in the draft. This draft is just painful to look at.

Before you can appreciate those lowlight, you have to take a gander at some of the players that went completely undrafted during the course of this travesty;

QB:
Eli Manning
Bret Favre
Alex Smith

RB:
Brandon Jackson
Warrick Dunn
Kevin Jones
Chris Henry

WR:
Chris Chambers
Terry Glenn
Darrell Jackson
Mushin Muhammad

TE:
LJ Smith
Heath Miller

D/ST:
Vikings
Eagles
Bills

K:
Robbie Gould
Josh Scobee
Jason Elam

To understand just how bad that is, think of it this way; if you joined their league now and made a team solely of the undrafted players, you could probably still win a few games. Also, notice the fact that Drew Bennet, Santonio Holmes, and Wes Welker were all drafted, while Chambers, Glenn, Jackson, and Muhhamad were not.

So what are the lessons to be learned from this awful display of fantasy football ignorance by ESPN? First off, you should not listen to a single bit of fantasy "advice" that comes out of the mouths of an ESPN analyst. Second, ESPN does not take fantasy football seriously enough to prepare their analysts to discuss the topic. I do not exaggerate in the slightest when I say that an average high school male would have destroyed ESPN's paid "experts" in this draft. Third, don't listen to anything that Michael A. Smith has to say about NFL football. You'd be better off asking your grandma about it.

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Hayden's Sporty Birthday Bash

2007-08-21T03:17:00.000-05:00

August 21st. One of the last days of summer. Kids are going back to school. The baseball pennant chases are heating up. The football season is just around the corner. All in all, it is a wonderful time of year.

This particular August 21st however, is extra wonderful. Why you might ask? Well today is a day that only happens once in a lifetime; it is Hayden Panettiere's 18th birthday. It is a glorious day, as all of the men of America can now officially watch Heroes without being sketchy. To celebrate Hayden's birthday, we would like to remind you that Hayden's career thus far has been oddly sports centric. How so? Just take a look back at some of the roles she has played thus far:

Sheryl Yoast, Remember The Titans: In Hayden's first major motion picture role she played the football obsessed daughter of T.C. Williams football coach Bill Yoast. This film was by far the best of the films on this list, and would begin a sports centered trend that continued when Hayden played...

Channing Walsh, Racing Stripes: I'll let IMDB tell you what this movie was about;

An abandoned zebra (voice of Frankie Muniz) grows up believing he is a racehorse, and, with the help of his barnyard friends and a teenage girl (Hayden Panettiere), sets out to achieve his dream of racing with thoroughbreds.

I can assure you that this film signified the first and last time Hayden ever rode Frankie Muniz. Horse racing brings the Hayden sport total to 2 and she wasn't done yet, moving on to yet another sport in her role as...

Gen Harwood, Ice Princess: I honestly do not understand how I missed this movie. No, I am not an ice skating fan, but I don't think I have missed many films that have boasted as stout a trio of femmes as Hayden, Michelle Trachtenberg, and Kim Cattrall. I thought ice skating was supposed to be cold.

Britney Allen, Bring It On: All Or Nothing: This movie was about cheerleading. I guess. I actually haven't seen it, but that is mainly because I already saw all of the important parts of the movie in this clip:

My guess is that it is all downhill from that point.

Claire Bennet, Heroes: Hayden had such a good time playing a cheerleader in Bring It On that she decided to keep at it, this time playing a cheerleader with superhuman healing powers. Now that Hayden is on Heroes every week you don't even have to go to Target and buy Bring It On off the clearance rack to see Hayden in all her skirted glory.

Hayden, Water Sport Queen: Well, this isn't actually a movie but...I guess it adds swimming to Hayden's sports portfolio, along with football, horse racing, ice skating, and cheerleading. Hopefully Hayden continues her sports career arc, which could mean future roles for Hayden in other sports themed movies. Like maybe one about tennis. Or better yet, beach volleyball.

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Fantasy Football Cheat Sheet: Bye, Bye

2007-08-20T22:43:00.000-05:00

Fantasy Football Cheat Sheet: The Good News Injury

2007-08-20T19:08:00.000-05:00

Fantasy Football Cheat Sheet: Final Round Sleepers

2007-08-19T00:25:00.000-05:00

Fantasy Football Cheat Sheet: Beware Maurice Jones-Drew

2007-08-18T00:35:00.000-05:00

Fantasy football is a fickle mistress. Every year the landscape changes, and the difference between first place and last place in your league depends on how you react to the changing climate. As a helper, Fantasy Football Cheat Sheet will guide you through some of the finer points of fantasy this year. Have a question or topic about fantasy football you'd like to see addressed? Send it to turnoverbattle@gmail.com

I'm sure you've seen the commercial. You know, the ESPN one for the Fantasy Football Hall of Fame, where a fantasy owner gives a teary testimonial about how Maurice Jones-Drew won his fantasy league for him. Great commercial. The dark side of that story however, is that that commercial and the subsequent overrating of Jones-Drew in fantasy football projections is going to produce the exact opposite result this year;

Maurice Jones-Drew will make you lose your fantasy league.

To understand why this is true, you first need to understand what produced the Jones-Drew phenomena last season. Jones-Drew rushed for nearly 1,000 yards, had over 400 yards receiving, and scored a mind-boggling 16 total TDs. There are many reasons for why Jones-Drew was able to have such a high level of success. Lets take a look at the factors that culminated in the perfect storm for Jones-Drew's breakout year;

1. Leftwich's Injury: Did you ever wonder how the Jaguars were able to give both Fred Taylor and Jones'Drew so many carries last year? The reason was simple; they weren't passing. Byron Leftwich was injured and missed the final 10 games of the season, forcing David Garrard into the starting role. The offensive coaching staff did not have nearly as much confidence in Garrard as they did in Leftwich, resulting in shift in offensive philosophy over the final 10 games of the season. In the first 6 games when Leftwich was the starter, the Jags averaged 30.5 pass attempts per game. Over the final 10 games they averaged 26 pass attempts per game. The end result of the change from Leftwich to Garrard was that there were more carries for Jones-Drew, as well as an emphasis on shorter passes, i.e. to Jones-Drew.

2. Taylor's Injury: People seem to forget about this one, but Fred Taylor was injured in the Jags 13th game of the season and barely played in the final three weeks. During those three weeks Jones-Drew accumulated 25% of his TD total, 29% of his rushing total, and 24% of his receiving total.

3. Jones' Injury: This is the one that nobody is taking into consideration. Last season the Jaguar's stud FB Greg Jones missed the entire year with a torn ACL. Not familiar with him? He is 6-1 and 255 lbs of pure nasty, and happens to be one of the best short-yardage runners in the NFL. While Jones was gone last season Jones-Drew assumed the short yardage duties and scored 7 of his 13 rushing TDs from within 6 yards.

So now that we've taken a look at what made the Maurice Jones-Drew monster last year, it is time to evaluate whether or not he will be in a similar situation this year. Here is a look at some factors that lead me to believe that Jones-Drew will not have anywhere near the same kind of fantasy impact this season:

1. Leftwich Returns: Remember how Jones-Drew emerged last season after the Jags lost Leftwich and became a run based offense? Well, Byron is back and healthy this year so that should reduce Jones-Drew's number of carries. Also keep in mind that Leftwich is also in a contract year, so an even greater emphasis might be put on the pass.

2. Jones Returns: Those 7 short yardage TDs that Jones-Drew scored last year? This year those carries will be going to Greg Jones. Right off the bat that takes away a ton of Jones-Drew's fantasy appeal. It is pretty hard to expect a backup running back to score a lot of TDs when he no longer will be getting the goal-line carries.

3. Taylor Remains: People seem to forget that Fred Taylor is still on the Jags, and that he is still their starter at RB. Not only that, he is still very productive. Last year he averaged a career best 5.0 yards per carry while gaining over 1,100 yards. Taylor also recently signed a contract extension through 2010, so anyone that thinks that Jones-Drew is going to be taking any of the starter carries away from Taylor this year needs to wake up.

4. Introducing Dirk Koetter: Dirk Koetter...that name sounds really familiar. Oh yeah, he was the coach at Arizona State for the past 6 years until he was fired last October. Oh, and he also happens to be the new offensive coordinator for the Jaguars this season. Now if any of you remember Arizona State's offense from the past 6 years you'll remember one key thing; they passed, and they passed a whole lot. Koetter runs an offense that is based on the vertical passing game, one that seems well-suited to a team that has Byron Leftwich and high draft picks such as Matt Jones, Ernest Wilford, Reggie Williams, and Marcedes Lewis to whom to throw passes. What this means is that the Jaguars are going to be throwing a lot more this season than they did last year. Last season the Jaguars threw 446 times while rushing 513 times. Now lets take a look at the pass / run split from the Jags' first pre-season game with Koetter in charge of the offense; 39 passes, 29 rushes. Besides the general tendency towards passing, Koetter's offenses have also been very kind to TEs. What that means is that Marcedes Lewis will likely get a large number of the short to medium range looks that would have otherwise gone to Jones-Drew.

Now lets play connect the dots. The Jags starter at QB is back and the new offensive coordinator loves to pass almost as much as Mike Martz and Dennis Green, so that means that the Jags will have fewer total rushing attempts. Greg Jones is back, which means that not only will he cut into Jones-Drew's total rushing attempts, but he will also take away the cheap short yardage TDs that Jones-Drew had so many of last season. Throw on top of that the fact that Fred Taylor is still the starter and that the new offensive coordinator loves passing to TEs in the intermediate passing game and I think it is pretty easy to see that Maurice Jones-Drew is in a situation where he is going to see his total carries, rushing TDs, and his role in the passing games drastically reduced.

So how is it that ESPN and Yahoo are ranking him as a 2nd round pick in fantasy?

To answer that question you must examine what stats those two sources are projecting for Jones-Drew this season. ESPN has him ranked as the #21 overall fantasy player, and has the following stat projections;

141 ATT, 823 YDS, 49 REC, 476 YDS, 8 Total TDs

With the emphasis on the passing game and the increased competition for backfield carries the 8 total TDs is a tad high for my taste. What is really absurd here however, is the fact that these projections assume that Jones-Drew is going to average 5.8 yards per carry. If you reduce that number to a more reasonable projection of 5.0 yards per carry than the projected rushing yards plummet to 700. The 49 receptions also seem a bit high considering that Koetter likes the TE better in the intermediate passing game, and the fact that Greg Jones may well be a better receiving option out of the backfield than Jones-Drew.

Yahoo has an even rosier projection for Jones-Drew, ranking him #16 overall with the following stat line:

1,172 YDS rushing, 111 YDS receiving, 13 total TDs (12.5 rushing)

Those projections, to put it kindly, are insane. To approach that number of rushing yards Jones-Drew would have to get 200 carries while averaging over 5.0 yards per carry. Jones-Drew is not going to even sniff that number of carries this year. No way, no how. The more asinine part of the projection is the 12-13 rushing TDs. For the reasons listed above, Jones-Drew is very unlikely to be near that ballpark.

So what do I think Jones-Drew's stats will look like this year? This would be my estimate;

700 YDS rushing, 350 YDS receiving, 5 total TDs

What that comes out to is 135 fantasy points. I don't know about you, but I think there are a lot of players in the first or second round that are going to get me more than 135 fantasy points. So don't say that you haven't been warned; taking Maurice Jones-Drew with a high pick is going to kill your fantasy team.

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Holliday Will Not Be MVP

2007-08-17T16:07:00.000-05:00

We all know that the AL MVP race is down to Magglio and A-Rod. What about the NL race? Some people (Including USA Today, The Denver Post, and the guys at Epic Carnival) have been talking up Matt Holliday recently. Why so much love for Holliday? For one thing, there is no other consensus favorite. Injuries and slumps have take a number of perrenial NL stars out of the running for the MVP award. Let's take a look at Holliday's MVP resume (NL rank in parenthesis):

Holliday:
BA: .338 (2nd)
HR: 21 (14th)
RBI: 95 (3rd)
Team: 62-58 (3rd in NL West)

Holliday's numbers are impressive. He is both hitting for average and driving in runs at an elite rate. There are a number of factors however, that are going to keep him from ever coming close to the NL MVP:

The Coor's Bias: Anyone that has been a baseball fan in the past decade knows that Coor's Field turns good hitters into great hitters. It's a proven fact, and whether it is fair to Holliday or not his numbers this year are going to be viewed by many as being Coor's inflated. The obvious question then, is whether or not his numbers are indeed inflated. Here is a look at Holliday's home and away splits this season:

Home: .378, 15 HR, 55 RBI
Away: .298, 6 HR, 38 RBI

As you can see, there is a huge gap between Holliday's home and away numbers. The Coor's bias has set in among MVP voters ever since Larry Walker won the 1997 award. Don't believe me? Take a look at Todd Helton's line in 2000, when the Rockies went 82-80 overall and 34-47 on the road:

Helton: .372 (1st), 42 HR (7th), 147 RBI (1st)

Helton came within 8 homers of the triple crown that year for a team with a winning record. Where did he finish in the MVP balloting? 5th. If a near triple crown year for a winning team couldn't win Helton an MVP, Holliday has no chance at all.

Playoff Bias: As it stands right now Holliday and the Rockies stand 6 games out of the NL West lead and 3 games out of the NL Wild Card. If you took a straw poll, most people would say that the Rockies will be sitting out the playoffs this year. So how does that impact Holliday's MVP chances? In the past decade 15 of the 20 MVPs have come from playoff teams. The five players to accomplish that feat were Ryan Howard, Larry Walker, A-Rod, and Barry Bonds twice. That is pretty elite company, company with which Holliday does not seem to fit.

Homer Bias: The one downside of Holliday's numbers is his somewhat lackluster home run total (for an MVP candidate). Holliday currently stands 14th in the NL in HR and is on pace to hit 29 for the season. In the past 15 years only 3 of the 30 MVPs have had fewer than 30 homers; Ichiro, Barry Larkin, and Dennis Eckersly. They say that chicks dig the long ball, but it might be true that MVP voters dig it even more.

Now take a look at all three of those biases together. If Holliday were to win the MVP as a Rockie, on a non playoff team, while hitting fewer than 30 HR it would not only be suprising it would be historically significant. (The last player to be named MVP from a non-playoff team while hitting under 30 HR was Robin Yount in 1989) I'd say the smart money right now on NL MVP would be on Ryan Howard, Jake Peavy, and whoever makes the playoffs between Albert Pujols and Prince Fielder.

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Fantasy Football Cheat Sheet: The QB Cliff

2007-08-16T15:26:00.000-05:00

Fantasy football is a fickle mistress. Every year the landscape changes, and the difference between first place and last place in your league depends on how you react to the changing climate. As a helper, Fantasy Football Cheat Sheet will guide you through some of the finer points of fantasy this year. Have a question or topic about fantasy football you'd like to see addressed? Send it to turnoverbattle@gmail.com

Every fantasy football player knows that running back is the most important position to fill in fantasy football. Even if you are stacked at RB however, your team can be hamstrung if you don't have a viable starter at quarterback. So who do you need to take this year to ensure yourself a good shot at winning your league? More so than many other years, the answer is simple; take one of these six QBs:

Peyton Manning
Drew Brees
Carson Palmer
Tom Brady
Marc Bulger
Donovan McNabb

In ESPN live drafts thus far all of these QBs have been off the board on average by the 40th pick. So it will cost you a 1st-4th round pick to do it, but you'll be set at the QB spot all season with one of these guys. If you pass on the members of the above group, the production drop-off is extremely steep after McNabb. In ESPN drafts the next QB drafted is Matt Hasselbeck, at an average pick of 55.2. The QB cliff is so steep in fact, that only four other QBs not in the top six (Hasselbeck, Vince Young, Philip Rivers, Tony Romo) even have an average pick in the first eight rounds of ESPN drafts. Yahoo drafts are seeing a similar pattern, with the only real difference being the inclusion of Jon Kitna in the first 80 picks on average.

As far as the production drop-off after the top six, just go take a look at last year's final fantasy stats for QBs. There is a clear divide after the top six, so grabbing one of them gives you a tremendous advantage at the QB spot over 4-6 of the other teams in your league, depending on size. Think of it this way; if you go RB-RB-WR with your first three picks, how can you justify taking a guy like Brandon Jacobs, Randy Moss, Marion Barber III, T.J. Houshmandzadeh, or Ahman Green if Bulger and McNabb are still on the table? The talent drop-off between third and fourth tier RBs and second and third tier WRs is not nearly as steep as the drop-off at QB after the big six, so unless you have a dynamite sleeper pick you are better off going QB by round 4.

Now on to two QBs I think are overrated and two I think are great sleepers for this year;

You'll Be Dissapointed In:

Vince Young: I really can't remember a fantasy QB being as vastly overrated going into a season as Vince Young is this year. ESPN has him rated 8th among QBs, and Yahoo has him ranked 7th. Why do they have him ranked so high? If you delve deeper into the projections each site has for Young, the answer becomes glaringly obvious. ESPN has Young projected for 7 rushing TDs this season, and Yahoo has him down for 8.7. Unless Young hits those totals (good for 42-54 fantasy points) there is no way on earth you can project him as a top ten QB. He lost his workhorse RB in Travis Henry and the team just isn't very talented at WR, especially after losing Drew Bennett to the Rams this offseason. So just how crazy is it to assume Young will have 7-9 rushing TDs? Let me put it like this; Mike Vick has a career high of 8 rushing TDs, and only 21 total rushing TDs in his entire six year career. You're telling me I should just assume then that Vince Young is more of a socring threat on the ground than Vick? I'll pass on that one thank you.

Matt Leinart: Leinart is one of the middle of the pack QBs in fantasy this season, and if you want to take a flier on him as a backup he really isn't that bad of a choice. Penciling him in as your starter though, is a recipe for disaster. Most casual fans probably don't realize the impact that the head coaching change in Arizona from Dennis Green to Ken Whisenhunt will have on the Cardinals' offense this year. Green is known for running a high flying aerial offense, one that made both Anquan Boldin and Larry Fitzgerald into fantasy stars in recent years. As for Whisenhunt? Um...have you watched a Steelers game in the last few years? In Whisenhunt's three seasons in charge of the Steelers' offense Pittsburgh ranked in the top ten in rushing yards every single year, and in the top ten in passing yards only once. Translation; More Edge, less Leinart now that Whisenhunt is at the helm.

You'll Be Suprised By:

Jon Kitna: Do you want to know how good Kitna is going to be this year? Just think about it logically for a second. Last year he threw for over 4200 yards, had 20+ TDs, and ranked 7th among all QBs in total fantasy points last season, even with Kevin Jones missing a third of the year. During the offseason the Lions added Tatum Bell, TJ Duckett, and most notably Calvin Johnson to the fold. Add the fact that Kitna is operating in a Mike Martz offense, and his numbers should be just as good if not better this year, right? You'd be wrong, at least according to ESPN's fantasy projections. ESPN has Kitna porjected to throw for 3 fewer TDs and 900 fewer yards than last year. That has to be a mistake on their part. The Lions' offense loses nothing, and in fact adds three new weapons, and they are projected to be markedly worse? Did someone forget to tell ESPN that Mike Martz loves throwing to RBs, so Tatum Bell coming into town is actually a good thing for the Lions' passing offense? All of that doesn't even take into account that the Lions also made huge improvements at both LG and RT by acquiring Edwin Mulitalo and George Foster, respectively. What that all adds up to is this; Kitna could BLOW UP this season, to the point where he might even challenge for a spot in the big six listed above. If you can pick him up as your backup, or have the cajones to wait on him as your starter, you could come out looking like a genius.

Brett Favre: Go ahead and laugh. I am fully aware that Brett Favre has lost a ton of accuracy in recent years, and now throws interceptions by the bunch. That does not mean however, that he is no longer a viable starter in fantasy, especially in 12 team leagues. Just look at the numbers. Favre was 8th in total fantasy points among QBs last year and threw more passes than any QB in the league. Those numbers don't look like the will change much this season. The Packers will continue throwing like crazy now that Ahman Green is gone, and the WR corps is actually improved now that Greg Jennings has a year under his belt and #3 WR Robert Ferguson is returning after missing almost all of last year. Feel free to sleep on Favre, most people will. Some people however, might realize that getting a potential starting QB in the 13th round isn't such a bad deal.

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Agree To Disagree

2007-08-16T13:37:00.000-05:00

When the Mike Vick dog-fighting scandal first broke, I didn't quite understand how opinions had become quite so polarized on the issue. There was one side that believed that Vick was guilty as sin, and as such should be kicked off of the Falcons and banned from football for life. On the flip side, there seemed to be a camp that refused to say if he was guilty, and thought that due process should have allowed Vick to play through the season. How is there such a chasm on this issue? The explanation is quite simple really, and if people would take a moment to examine what everyone else is saying they'd see that in this case differing opinions aren't contradictory opinions.

Guilty or Not Guilty: The first great divide in the Vick debate seems fairly straight forward. There is a camp of people that sees seven witnesses ready to testify against Vick, physical evidence of dogfighting at a house that Vick owned, and a money trail so large that it could only lead back to a rich person and comes to the conclusion "I think Vick did it". That is ok, mainly because people's opinions do not have a hard and fast standard of certainty. I have the right to believe something that I see as having a 51% probability of being true. You have the right to believe something you see as having a 1% probability of being true.

While we live in a country that does allow people to form whatever opinion they wish, we also live in a country that operates on the standard of "reasonable doubt" when it comes to guilt in a court case. So...what exactly is "reasonable doubt"? Here is the best definition, as well as the most helpful one in applying the concept to the Vick case; "any doubt which would make a reasonable person hesitate in the most important of his or her affairs." Now for those of you that think Vick is guilty (myself included), ask yourself this question; If your life / family / fortune was on the line, and it depended on correctly answering whether or not Mike Vick was guilty of all of the dog-fighting charges against him, would you hesitate? I know I would, because I haven't seen the evidence in the case. I haven't heard exactly what the witnesses against Vick have to say. I wasn't there, and neither were you (hopefully). In other words, I agree with the people that say that we shouldn't crucify Vick just yet and that we should let the . And I also agree with the people that think Vick is guilty.

Business vs. Fairness: The second aspect of the Vick debate is perhaps the more contentious one. The people that think that the judgement of Vick should be held off till trial also generally believe that Vick shouldn't have his job taken away from him without being convicted of anything. Is it "fair" to get rid of Vick before he is convicted? In the end, probably not. Is it smart business to get rid of Vick right now? Absolutely. You see, the NFL and the Atlanta Falcons don't have to abide by the principle of reasonable doubt. The NFL doesn't have to wait for a conviction to suspend Vick, and the Falcons don't have to let him play in the meantime even if he isn't suspended. In fact, the Falcons would be insane to let him play. Can you imagine the protests? The distractions? The difficulty of Vick preparing for games during the leadup to his trial? The Falcons would lose money, games, and PR points if they let Vick play. Is it fair to him considering that he hasn't been convicted? Nope, but life isn't fair. Look at it this way; let's say you own a 7-11. One day one of your workers (we'll call him Dua for this theoretical) is arrested and charged with dog-fighting. The story makes the front page of your local paper the next day. Now do you let "Dua the Dog-Fighter" continue coming to work until his, knowing that him working at your store will drive away business and perhaps bring harm to both Dua and your property? Of course not. You tell the guy to stay home. Easy choice there, and also an easy choice for the Falcons in this situation. Business decisions don't have to be fair, they just have to be smart.

So are all of these opinions different? Of course. Are they irreconcilable though? No. Maybe now we can all just agree to disagree, with a little better understanding of where everyone else is coming from with their opinions.

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And...I'm Back

2007-08-16T13:29:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone. Sorry for the longer than expected absence, I stayed at my girlfriend's for an extra day because...well, she is my girlfriend, I don't need a reason for staying an extra day. I am back now though, and I am ready to resume my regular blogging schedule. Coming up I'll have a post on the Mike Vick situation, followed by a fantasy football series, and then hopefully Ben will have something "Out of Right Field" coming soon.

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This, Your Parting Gift

2007-08-10T03:28:00.000-05:00

OK all, I am heading up to DC for the next 4-5 days so in all likelihood I will be doing little to no posting while I am visiting my lovely girlfriend. As I hit the road though, I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank all of the great people I have come across in these past four months while doing the blog. I started writing it on a whim because I was ticked off that Marty Schottenheimer was fired, and since then it has turned into a super fun and fulfilling experience. I just want to give thanks to everyone that has dropped by to read, and I hope you found at least something that was of minute interest while you were here. I also want to thank everyone that has been gracious enough to throw some links my way, you guys are all sweethearts. I also want to say an extra special thanks to Dustyn (Sons of Sam Malone), Sooze (Babes Love Baseball), Don (With Malice...), Brian (One More Dying Quail), and the rest of the late night crew at Epic Carnival for some of the more entertaning e-mail threads I have ever had the pleasure of taking part in.

Now on to that gift I mentioned in the title of the post. While looking at the Dlisted website yesterday at the "Derek Jeter gave Jessica Alba herpes" story I came across this story about Clay Aiken. Clay looks a whole lot different than he used to, in fact he looks EXACTLY like someone we all know and love; the esteemed Will Leitch.

Will

Clay

Have a good weekend everyone.

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Don't Forget Bronko

2007-08-10T00:57:00.000-05:00

In the wake of Pacman Jones' pro wrestling debut a number of names have been invoked in discussions about pro athletes gone pro wrestler. Karl Malone. Lawrence Taylor. Even Bill Goldberg. There is one name that has been left out however, and it is the man who was both the greatest pro athlete to wrestle, as well as the greatest wrestler who happened to be a pro athlete. Who is this forgotten man?

Bronko Nagurski.

You see, Bronko didn't just moonlight in pro wrestling like Malone and Taylor. Nagurski wrestled on and off for 25 years, from 1935-1960. He is also the most decorated athlete ever to turn pro wrestler, having been one of the charter members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame as well as being the only college football player ever to be named an All-American at two different positions in the same season. In the pros Nagurski made All Pro at three different positions and helped lead the Bears to two championships.

Where things got interesting with Nagurski was in 1938 when Nagurski retired from football mainly because he couldn't get a raise and could make more money in pro wrestling. Nagurski went on to become one of the greatest pro wrestlers of his era, winning the world championship three different times.

In a nutshell, Bronko's wrestling and football prominence would be equal to a player like Brett Favre today suddenly retiring from the NFL and going on to become one of the most popular pro wrestlers. Actually, now that you mention it...that doesn't sound like a half bad idea...

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That Has To Hurt

2007-08-09T04:48:00.000-05:00

Sometimes gymnastics is fun to watch. This is one of those times.

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The Greatest

2007-08-08T19:33:00.000-05:00

Now that Barry Bonds has broken Hank Aaron's home run record the discourse among sportswriters has turned to the question of who is the greatest home run hitter of all time. Is it Bonds because he technically holds the record? Or is it Aaron, due to Bonds' performance coming in the steroid era while Aaron's occured in a pitcher's era? Or is it someone else?

The answer may suprise you...because there is no concrete answer. Determining who is "the greatest" home run hitter of all time depends upon what aspect of home run hitting you view as most important. Is it the raw numbers? Is it consistency? Is it efficiency? Is it regularity? Is it a comparison to the competition? The answer to each of those five questions is different, which is precisely why there is no singular home run king; there are five.

The All Time Champ: Barry Bonds
No matter how certain anyone is that Barry took steroids / the clear / the cream / HGH the fact remains that he has never tested positive for any performance enhancers, and he will never admit to it. Therefore there is never going to be an asterisk affixed to Bonds' record, just like there will be no asterisk affixed to any of the other records set during the steroid era. Though some people would like you to believe that Bonds is the only villain in all of this, there are more players than you can count that have been using HGH, steroids, and greenies over the past two decades. Likewise, throughout baseball history players have scuffed balls, spit on balls, stolen signs, corked bats, and used too much pine tar. Point being, if you took away every single stat ever accumulated by a baseball player accussed of cheating, you wouldn't be left with much of a record book. I'm not saying that it is right; I'm just saying that is the way it has always been, and until there is a complete and itemized overhaul of every single baseball record people need to lay off the asterisk talk. So if the raw numbers are what is most important to you, than Barry's body of work clearly makes him the greatest home run hitter of all time because like it or not his record will be staring back at you everytime you open the record book. Without an asterisk.

The King of Consistency: Hank Aaron
You think Bonds' raw numbers are inflated? OK. Lets say that the most important aspect of home run hitting to you is consistency. If so, Hank Aaron is your pick as the greatest home run hitter of all time. Aaron not only holds the record for most twenty-homer seasons (20), he also did them all in a row. During the peak years of Aaron's career he hit between 24-47 home runs every single year, and his career average per 162 games was 37 home runs. Aaron was a devastatingly efficient home run machine. He never had a 50 homer season, but he never had a single digit one either. If that sounds like the kind of thing you value as great, then feel free to declare Aaron the greatest. There are plenty of people that would agree with you.

The Juggernaut: Babe Ruth
Although Ruth stands at #3 on the all time home run list his home run feats are perhaps far more legendary than either of the two men in front of him on that list. The stats are well known; Ruth held the all-time home run record for an astounding 53 years. He held the single season mark for 34 years. He lead his league in homers 12 times. In both 1927 and 1920 Ruth hit more home runs than any other AL team. These are feats that likely will never be matched for the rest of history. There is no disputing the fact that Ruth is the most singular home run talent of any given era. Is that what makes a man the greatest home ru hitter of all time? That is for you to decide.

The Deadliest: Mark McGwire
The above metrics still aren't tickling your fancy? How anout this rubric for deciding the greatest; at bats per home run. By that measure Mark McGwire is the greatest home run hitter of all time, and it isn't even close. Just take a look at the top five AB/HR guys of all time:

1. Mark McGwire 10.61
2. Babe Ruth 11.76
3. Barry Bonds 12.93
4. Jim Thome 13.64
5. Ralph Kiner 14.11

McGwire's dominance in this category is tremendous. Big Mac also has three of the top four single seasons in thi category, trailing only Barry Bonds' record setting 2001 season. What this means is that if you had to pick one man to hit a home run in any given at bat, history would say that McGwire would be your man. And it isn't even close.

The Efficiency Expert: Ted Williams
This might be the category you wouldn't think of right off the bat, and it is the one of the most effecient home run hitter in regards to at bats per strikeout. Why this category? The evil twin to every home run is the strikeout, and shouldn't an argument about the greatest hitter of all time also factor in which power hitter was best able to be Dr. Jekyll without turning into Mr. Hyde? In looking at this stat for the hitters in the 500 home run club, one man stands out from the pack; Ted Williams. Williams only struck out once every 10.87 ABs during his career. While that number isn't great for a normal hitter, it is phenomenal for a power hitter. In a way you can view this statistic as showing who was the best natural home run hitter, the player that didn't need to take chances and swing from his heels in order to hit the round-tripper. If that sounds like greatness to you, Teddy Ballgame is your greatest home run hitter.

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Darren McFadden Is A Clown

2007-08-08T01:58:00.000-05:00

Remember those crazy qoutes about Darren McFadden that came out during the SEC Media Days in July? Just in case you don't, here is a little refresher:

"Last Halloween, the most recognizable 19-year-old in the state went to his classes in complete disguise. Wearing a clown suit, complete with rainbow wig, oversized glasses, a fake cigar, striped shirt, enormous yellow pants and wide suspenders, McFadden could have struck a Heisman pose and still remained anonymous."

Man, that sounds hysterical. Too bad no pictures ever turned up of tha...wait, you found what?

That's right, here is Darren McFadden in all his be-clowned glory. Enjoy. (Click for a larger version)

You Might Also Like:
Yao' Wedding Invitations
OJ Simpson's Strange Week
Cleveland Cavaliers Rapper Lookalikes

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OJ Is Having A Bad Week

2007-08-07T20:23:00.000-05:00

As if getting heckled during an interview wasn't bad enough for OJ Simpson, there is more bad news. In fact, there are all sorts of OJ stories floating around right now. To recap:

You're With Me, Killer: Now this one is just too strange. The fat kid from the upcoming movie SuperBad (AKA, Jonah Hill) is saying that OJ stole a woman from him at a nightclub in Miami. In Jonah's own words:

"All of a sudden O.J. Simpson walks by - in the nightclub. She looks at O.J., then she looks back at me and she says, 'Peace,' and then walks away and starts dancing with O.J. "He's famous for killing women and their friends! That's how pathetic I am. A night with O.J. and possibly getting murdered is better than some sort of sexual experience with me."

This is no game: The Juice's likeness is featured in the new video game All-Pro Football 2K8, which evidently does not sit well with the family of Ron Goldman on a number of levels. In fact, they have gone to court over it in connection to their 1994 wrongful death suit and won:

"Under the order issued by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Gerald Rosenberg, any earnings to Simpson that "have been paid, are due or may be due in the future" for use of his image and likeness in the video game must be turned over to the Goldman estate.

Moreover, Simpson was ordered to turn over copies of his Take-Two contract and related documents, as well as any other financial deals he has yet to disclose."

The ruling does not however, prevent anyone who owns the game from putting OJ on the team named "The Assassins" whose mascot is "a hooded figure who makes stabbing motions with a large knife in the end zone when the Assassins score". You know Take Two if you really want to put a dent in Madden's market dominance you might try not turning your game into a PR nightmare. I hear it helps.

He did it!!!: No, I'm not talking about the murders, I'm talking about the aborted book "If I Did It". OJ had tried to say that he was just a reluctant participant in the entire enterprise, but the ghostwriter of the book is speaking out and saying OJ had the idea in the first place:

"OJ read the book, his book, several times. I made every change he asked for, and he signed off on it," Fenjves, a Hollywood screenwriter told Reuters.

"The whole book, the whole idea for a book, originated with OJ Simpson and a couple of his handlers," he said."

Like I said. Not a good week for the Juice.

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Black Flag Is Your New Anti-Hero

2007-08-07T17:05:00.000-05:00

I have a confession. I don't really follow NASCAR that much. I will watch a race here and there, and they can be enjoyable, but the sport has never really captivated me in the same way as the Big Three sports. Well my friends, that may well have changed. I now have a favorite NASCAR driver, and his name is Robby Gordon.

Why Robby Gordon you might ask? He has cajones, that is why. He is a BAMF, as it were. Just look at what happened at this weekend's Busch Series race. I'll let Robby's wikipedia page recap the action for you:

"2007 Montreal Incident
During the inaugural NAPA Auto Parts 200 at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Gordon was involved in an on-circuit altercation with fellow driver Marcos Ambrose. Gordon passed Ambrose to take the lead at the same time as a multi-car wreck was unfolding behind them; Ambrose spun him, under a yellow flag, to reclaim it seconds later. After an unusually long delay in sorting out the field for the restart, NASCAR eventually determined that Gordon would restart in 13th position. Gordon, who had a strong race all day, refused to go to that position, and was black flagged after the restart, and after spinning out Ambrose. Gordon did not come in for his penalty and was subsequently disqualified and given the final finishing position of 18th. Following the race, Gordon proceeded to do burnouts on the front straightaway as if celebrating his victory, alongside race winner Kevin Harvick. He announced in a post-race interview that he would appeal the result of the race. However, NASCAR suspended Gordon for the following day's race at Pocono. In a statement released soon after the NASCAR announcement, Gordon apologized for his actions but maintained that NASCAR made a mistake in telling him to line up in the 13th position."

In case the words aren't enough for you, here is the video featuring both spin-outs and the dueling burnouts:

I have to admit, I think this is awesome. If you watch the video it is pretty obvious that Robby was cheated out of first place on the caution by Ambrose, so why not take back that pound of flesh back? NASCAR already has its pretty boy in Jeff Gordon and who better to be "Bizarro Jeff Gordon" than a guy with the same surname? And don't think that Robby is just a flash in the pan; he also had my all-time favorite NASCAR incident back in 2005 when he walked on the track like a mad man to chuck his helmet at Michael Waltrip after Waltrip crashed him. Here is the video:

WTB salutes you Robby Gordon, and we will do our best to make sure your sweet new nickname spreads like wildfire; Black Flag.

(By the way...I made that graphic.)

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From Out of Right Field: Unfair Advantages

2007-08-07T16:04:00.000-05:00

Editor's Note: This is the first WTB post for my good friend Ben. He is hilarious, and has been so gracious as to offer to write some stories "From Out of Right Field" from time to time. Treat him nice, and enjoy.

Recently, Michael Witte wrote a little piece for Editor & Publisher entitled “Exclusive: Barry Bonds’ Home Run Record Tainted by Mechanical Device?” in which he argues that Bonds owes at least some of his success to the giant protective pad which he wears on his right elbow. I applaud Witte for his efforts in exposing this instance of an athlete using a mechanical device to improve his game. However, why stop there, I ask? Witte, like the rest of the media, has ignored the most blatant of all machine-wielding offenders. What I am going to say next may shock some readers, so if you are easily offended, you may want to cover your eyes for this next part.

Like Barry Bonds, who clearly enjoys an unfair mechanical advantage, Michael Jordan should be stricken from the record books.

Let me repeat that: Michael Jordan should be stricken from the record books.

“But Ben,” you are probably saying right now, “I have never seen His Airness doing anything that would give him an unfair advantage in a game of basketball. Just who the hell do you think you are, going around saying these things about one of the greatest sports legends to ever grace this earth?”

To which I will respond thusly. No matter what anybody tells you, Michael Jordan did enjoy an unfair mechanical advantage. I am sick and tired of people looking the other way, refusing to acknowledge the sheer magnitude of his advantage. I am sickened by the silence of the mainstream media on this issue. I simply cannot bear it any longer. If nobody else is going to say it, I will—Michael Jordan is a cyborg.

There. I said it. Robotic implants have incalculably improved his abilities on the court. If Barry Bonds is going to be given an asterisk for his unfair advantage, MJ needs an entire pile of them. You have all seen him play. There is no way any human being can do the things that Mike can do.

“But Ben,” I hear you saying again, “Michael’s greatness comes solely from hard work and natural talent—not from some self-regulating integration of artificial and natural systems. There is nothing robotic about him.”

To which I reply: Bull!

I have seen the schematics. Hydraulic servos in his arms and legs give him inhuman speed, strength and agility. A hidden jetpack allows for dazzling displays of aerial acrobatics. Enhanced tactical sensors in his fingertips give unparalleled ball control. He has retinal implants that instantly calculate distances and angles which lend uncanny accuracy in shooting and passing. The reason he sticks his tongue out when dunking is because he has a micro-radar system mounted in there which guides his dunks straight to the basket. Telescoping arms make rebounding a snap. Self-recharging dual lithium-SOCl₂batteries give him a near-infinite supply of energy. Strategically placed synthetic diamond cooling heat sinks ensure a near-constant internal temperature. Artificial vocal cords can mimic any voice—frequently confusing opponents into giving away turnovers. Tank treads in his feet simply roll over anybody in his way while an alpha wave emitter in his knee emits a referee-confusing beam—eliminating any possibility of having a foul called against him. Special telepathy nodes in his brain let him read the other teams’ thoughts, enabling him counter their every move. Laser beam eyes vaporize any opponents who are foolish enough to even think about stealing a ball. Every part of him is modular and made of readily available, interchangeable parts—which make for easy maintenance, repair and replacement—even while on the road. Still don’t believe me? Then answer me this—why do you think the Bulls kept Dennis Rodman around for so long? His only purpose was to keep people from noticing the glowing ‘standby’ light on the back of Michael’s head.

Any way you look at it, Robo-Jordan enjoys an unfair advantage and is unstoppable on the court. For this, all of his ‘achievements’ should be stricken from the record books. He even has a built-in AM/FM radio with cassette deck and in-trunk six CD changer. My car doesn’t even have that.

It simply isn’t fair.

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Yao Knows Invitations

2007-08-07T14:55:00.000-05:00

Perhaps you are a little Yao-ed out from all of the Yao Ming wedding coverage yesterday, but I really can't resist putting up this invitation / poster/ IDK from his wedding. It makes it look like Yao and his bride are starring in some sort of bad Chinese romance movie:

All I have to say is, T-Mac would never pull some stuff like that.

One Stop Video Shop

2007-08-06T22:43:00.000-05:00

There are a lot of great videos that get passed around the blogosphere, and most of the time I don't link them. Not because they aren't entertaining, but mainly because they took up a ton of space on the front page of the site, and I didn't want people to have to scroll down too much. That has changed with the new redesign however, as the expandable post feature now allows me to hide most of the videos if you aren't interested. So enjoy.

- LT's new Nike commercial; now that is what I call advertising. (via Epic Carnival)

- Want to see a grown man cry? Then watch Michael Irvin's Hall of Fame speech. (via The Fanhouse)

- The Mariners are resorting to having their mascot try to take out the competition. (via Bar Stool Sports)

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Brady May Not Be A Villain

2007-08-06T21:09:00.000-05:00

As the Brady Quinn holdout continues the public opinion of Quinn has continued to plummet. So is Brady the villain in this game? A week ago I wrote an analysis of what Quinn and his agent Tom Condon should be looking for from the Browns based on the rookie contracts of similar players such as Aaron Rodgers. Here is what I wrote at the time;

"First off, he (Quinn) should get higher base compensation so move that $7.7 million to something more like $8.5 million. Then take the guaranteed money and move it from $5.4 million to the $7 million range. Next take the total possible value of the contract after incentives and escalators and move it from $24.52 million to about $28 million."

Up until now I had assumed that a large part of the delay in Quinn's contract negotiations was due to his camp asking for a contract worth substantially more than the deal outlined above. Today news has finally leaked of the parameters asked for by the Quinn camp, and they really aren't that outrageous;

"Under the plan proposed by the Quinn camp, the five-year contract would have a maximum value of about $30 million. If Quinn were to achieve the lowest-level escalators, the deal would be worth $20.25 million. Factoring in the lowest-level escalator values of all the other 2007 first-round choices over a five-year period, the Quinn model would rate as the ninth most valuable."

The hold-up on the Browns end seems to be over what amount of playing time will trigger the escalators in Quinn's contract. Condon's proposal is for Quinn to get an extra $5 million in the final two years of the deal if he plays at least 55% of the snaps in any two of the first three seasons of the deal or 70% of the snaps in any one season. The Browns want the escalators to be more difficult to achieve. The Browns are also looking to decrease the guaranteed money money in the deal from the $8 million proposed by Condon to $7.5 million.

So let me get this straight; Phil Savage is trash talking Quinn on the radio and painting him as the bad guy when he won't give up an extra $500 K in guarantees and wants the escalators to be harder to reach? Give me a break. Either he is going to be the starter or he isn't. If he becomes the starter within the first three years he will play well over 70% of the snaps, and if he doesn't become the starter he'll play well under 55%. What would be a more difficult escalator? And why tick off your future starter over just $500 K?

As far as the triggers for the escalators, All Headline News has this tidbit on what the Browns might be looking for instead of the triggers proposed by Condon:

"Quinn's agent, Tom Condon, wants the No. 22 selection rewarded with incentives based on playing time, while the Browns want a more statistical-based package, including perhaps honors and awards."

So Brady wouldn't just have to be the starter to get paid like a starter, he'd have to be a Pro Bowler within three years? That is more than a bit unreasonable from the Brown's side considering the fact that most young QBs sit out their first season and that Cleveland doesn't exactly have the best weapons on offense to help Quinn succeed right away.

The Browns should make this deal happen. The escalators as proposed above are in line with most young QB's contracts, and the total value proposed really isn't that high for Quinn considering his pedigree and the fact that he plays the game's most important position. For once the player holding out might not be the real villain here; it may well be Browns GM Phil Savage.

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Paparazzo: Levi Brown Seems Fun

2007-08-06T18:38:00.000-05:00

Offensive linemen never get any of the fame and glory. I mean, even the most famous linemen aren't really celebs. I honestly don't think I could pick Walter Jones out of a lineup for the life of me. Why is this? Well, in today's sports climate it takes more than just being a good player to be famous; you have to be a personality, and most offensive linemen are boring.

Which brings us to Cardinals' first rounder Levi Brown. Do you know anything about Levi Brown? Nope, me either. I do know though, that Levi seems like an interesting character from these pictures. Enjoy:

Wait...wasn't he drafted by the Cardinals, not the Bucs?

You Might Also Like: Yao's Wedding Poster

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Dice-K is looking like...Derek Lowe

2007-08-05T21:43:00.001-05:00

On Saturday night against the Mariners Dice-K continued his recent run of success, matching his season high with 10 strikeouts in a 4-3 win. Matsuzaka pitched 7 innings while only giving up 2 earned runs. The game was also his third consecutive quality start following three rather lackluster outings at the beggining of July.

On a little more interesting note...Saturday's game also continued a streak of nine consecutive Dice-K starts in which the Red Sox have alternated wins and losses. That means Red Sox fans can pretty much go ahead and put an L on the calendar right now for August 10th, when the Red Sox face Erik Bedard and the Orioles. Regardless of recent history though, the matchup of Dice-K and Bedard promises to be quite the duel of young stud pitchers.

Now on to the fun part boys and girls. Who is Dice-K looking like this week? The answer to that question resides all the way across the country from Boston, in sunny Los Angeles. This week Dice-K is looking like...Derek Lowe.

Dice-K 2007:
W%: .62
QS%: .65
ERA: 3.70
WHIP: 1.26
Salary: $6,333,333

Lowe 2006:
W%: .67
QS%: .59
ERA: 3.63
WHIP: 1.27
Salary: $9,500,000

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Barry Media Bias: Former Teammate Version

2007-08-05T17:44:00.000-05:00

So now that Barry has tied the home run record, there are two things that you can expect; 1.) Barry is going to get walked like crazy. Seriously, nobody wants to be "that guy" that gives up 756. Barry walked three straight times after hitting 755, a streak that could continue for quite some time. 2.) The media is going to ramp up the lynch Barry campaign. While the first of those two points will have to wait until Monday, the media throwdown has already begun.

This time the media bias is coming out in this story over at ESPN about former Bonds teammate Brian Johnson.

I didn't know who the heck he was either.

In the article Johnson imparts the following bits of wisdom;

"You can make a fair argument that he may have been cheating," Johnson said. "Based on what has been documented, it's hard to dispute that argument."

"It was kind of a cloak-and-dagger society. Guys that were taking knew of each other and talked about things among themselves," Johnson said. "What I saw was that guys who were taking would never admit it, would never allow anybody to see. But it was pretty obvious to all of us that they were taking. ... Some people sold their soul to the devil and other people didn't."

Oh man, this is big news here! A former teammate seeing Barry huddling up with other steroid users? Saying it is hard to dispute that Barry cheated? This is such a smoking....pile of crap. What the story chooses to brush over is the fact that Johnson was only Bonds' teammate in the 1997 and 1998 seasons. For those not familiar with the Bonds' alleged steroid use timeline, that would be before Barry is alleged to have begun using steroids. Nobody has alleged that Bonds was juicing in '97 or '98...so why is Johnson such a Bonds expert, one worthy of being interviewed on TV and having his comments plastered on the front page of ESPN.com? The answer is that Johnson is not an expert on the situation, and that his interview is being spun against Barry just like the memorabilia story from yesterday.

It also really doesn't bolster ESPN's neutrality when this is on their front page as well:

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Blogger Banner Fun

2007-08-05T16:01:00.000-05:00

I am thinking I might have to make Sunday "Meta-day" around these parts, as that is about all I seem to be up to at this point. To follow the theme, the playing around with WTB got me thinking...if I was at "Site X" how would I do their banner? Here are the results thus far of my mind wanderings:

100% Injury Rate:

Sons of Sam Malone:

Six Pack Sports Report:

WTB:

With Malice...

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"i think this guy is looking for you"

2007-08-05T14:06:00.000-05:00

It's time again to recap the week at WTB in terms of Google Analytics. The top searches that brought people to the site all pertained to football players that had negative press during the week:

OJ Simpson
Brady Quinn
Ron Mexico
Vince Young

Sadly, Jamie Kotsay and the Snorg girl continue to fall off drastically as the weeks go on. This week did see two more searches for the classic "how to spot ghosts", which delighted me more than I can say. Now on to some of this week's best searches:

"i got a vick pitbull"
"how to make it to the d league"
"what is sis boom bah cheerleader"

While those are all good searches in their own right, the undisputed winner of this week's "WTB Search Of The Week Award" goes to...

"i think this guy is looking for you"

This one is just a little...weird. Who searches something like that? Are those song lyrics I don't know? My question would be, who is the searcher, the guy who is looking for someone or the person being looked for? The two possibilities hold such different outcomes. On the one hand, the searcher could be a dumb serial killer who is googling trying to figure out how to stalk people best. On the other, the searcher is a frightened person who is living every single day in fear of "this guy". Either way...they came to WTB. So welcome dumb serial killer or frightened person. I hope you like sports.

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Under Construction

2007-08-05T02:12:00.000-05:00

You have probably noticed that the page here at WTB looks a little different today. I had become a little bored with the old template (pictured at right), so I decided to give a new one a whirl. So if you have an opinion, positive or negative, about the new look of the site leave me a comment on this post. I also have a poll on the right as to which template is better, so you can give that a whirl too if you'd like.

As for the header...I like to play with photo editing, so I have a number of pictures that I was considering. Here are all of them, so let me know which ones you like:

Feedback is appreciated, and I always welcome constructive criticism. Thanks guys.

Barry Media Bias: Auction Version

2007-08-04T14:21:00.000-05:00

Today another Barry Bonds story has hit the wires and as usual the media is trying its hardest to spin the story against Bonds. The story is as thus; Some auction company called Mastro Auctions had a baseball memorabilia auction yesterday. Some of the items that were sold included an autographed Hank Aaron jersey, Aaron's signed rookie contract, an autographed Aaron rookie card, an unautographed Aaron rookie card, and Bond's 70th home run ball from the 2001 season. During the auction the Aaron items each sold for more than the Bonds ball. So as can be expected from the Barry hating media, here is a sample of some of the headlines of the story:

Sportsline: Aaron items outsell Bonds' No. 70 HR ball
ESPN: Aaron memorabilia fetches more than Bonds items

And then here is an excerpt from the AP story:

"The ball was one of only a handful of items that didn't meet its estimated selling price, while all the Aaron memorabilia met or exceeded expectations, Allen said."

Now for some perspective that is sorely missing from both the headlines of this story and the story itself.

Point 1. We are talking about home run ball #70, not the record #73. Why should #70 really be expected to break the bank in an auction? Because it is a round number? I concede that the ball didn't meet the expected price, but who the heck appraised it? Expected auction prices are not an exact science by any means.

Point 2. The comparison of a Bonds item to Aaron items is inherently unfair. The price of sports memorabilia is highly dependent upon time and historical context. So is it really that suprising that fifty year old pieces of rare Aaron memorabilia outsold a not terribly historically signifigant Bonds home run ball that is less than a decade old? Of course not.

Point 3. It is not like these were the only items for sale at the auction. The press merely chose to ignore the other items, focus on the Bonds-Aaron angle, and make a binary Good/Bad comparison. What a joke. Anyone who believes the press isn't biased against Bonds after reading a story like this needs a lobotomy.

Also, the assertation by the auction house spokesman that the steroid scandal will forever hamper Bonds memorabilia...please. The 10th best selling piece of baseball memorabilia of all time is Shoeless Joe Jackson's "Black Betsy" bat. I guess the whole gambling scandal really had a lasting effect there.

Sports Hotties You Don't Know...Yet

2007-08-03T00:00:00.000-05:00

If you ask me, I think that the world of sports ladies needs an infusion of new talent. I am personally a little tired of hearing about Natalie Gulbis, Danica Patrick, and Maria Sharapova all of the time. So today is the day to diversify the sports hottie portfolio a little bit, and continue the work that was started with the recent inclusion of Allison Stokke and Taryne Mowatt in the sports babe canon. For your consideration, here are my nominees, sorted by sport;

Golf: Erica Blasberg
You've Heard Of: Natalie Gulbis, Michelle Wie
Erica plays on the LPGA Tour, and before going pro she tore up the college scene at the University of Arizona. This year is her first season with full exempt status on the LPGA Tour. Besides being one of the most accurate drivers on tour, 23 year old Erica is also the face of Puma's golf line.

Basketball: Ilona Korstin
You've Heard Of: Sue Bird, Lauren Jackson
Ilona is one of Russia's top players, and she played an integral role on Russia's bronze medal winning Olympic team in 2004. The 27 year old Korstin is a 6 foot tall forward. So does anyone have any complaints about a tall, pretty, Russian blonde? I didn't think so.

Soccer: Milene Domingues
You've Heard Of: Brandi Chastain, Heather Mitts
The rest of the world already knows all about Milene Domingues. That is mainly because in addition to being a model and one of the best female soccer players in the world, she also happens to be the first ex-wife of Ronaldo. Milene isn't just a pretty face. She also holds the world record for soccer juggling by a female, having juggled a ball 55,187 over nine hours when she was 17. Forget Beckham, I'd be more of a soccer fan if Milene came over here to play.

Softball: Whitney Baker
You've Heard Of: Jenny Finch, Taryne Mowatt
According to Baker's bio at UCLA's website she was the 2006 Washington Gatorade Player of the Year and also holds the Washington state high school record for strikeouts in a career with 949. In her freshman year at UCLA she started six games and threw two shutouts while posting a 2.65 ERA. As well as being an extremely talented softball player, she also happens to be quite attractive. In case you hadn't noticed from the picture. Though I'm sure you did.

Gymnastics: Jamie, Janelle, and Jalynne Dantzscher
You've Heard Of: Dominique Moceanu
Now, I have a confession to make. Jamie Dantzsher is my favorite female athlete ever. Feel free to tell me I'm wrong, but there is just something about her that puts her above everyone else in my book. So when I found out she had two twin sisters that were also gymnasts...wow. Both of Jamie's sisters followed in her footsteps to UCLA, though sadly her sister Jalynne has retired from the sport due to injuries.

Tennis: Sania Mirza
You've Heard Of: Maria Sharapova, Serena Williams
Women's tennis is the most babe centric of all women's sports, so it is somewhat difficult to find a true unknown hottie. So I decided to go the route of "non-Russian, non-blonde" and see where it took me. It led me right to Sania Mirza. Sania is the most prominent female athlete in all of India, and her court clothing has caused quite a stir among some Islamists. I say, keep it up Sania.

*As always, feel free to leave more suggestions in the comments, and I will update as needed.

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Who Is This Year's "Madden Team"?

2007-08-02T19:03:00.000-05:00

A "Madden Team". Even if you have never heard the phrase, you'll recognize what I am talking about as soon as I define it. A Madden Team is a team that is inexplicably better in a videgame than it is in real life, whether that be because of injuries, suspensions, underachieving, or just plain bad rankings by the video game maker. The Redskins of the past five years come to mind. Bad to mediocre on the field, but in Madden you could wreck some people with the Skins. Another one that pops to mind is the Colorado Avalanche of the late 90's. They were good in real life, but the trio of Roy, Sakic, and Forsberg made them unstoppable in video games. The Atlanta Hawks have even been a Madden team in recent years, taking advantage of game developers' tendency to overrate young players to make a roster of Josh Smith, Josh Childress, and Marvin Williams much more formidable than it should be.

So who is it going to be in this year's version of Madden? Here are a few early candidates;

Chicago Bears:
No, this doesn't mean that Rex Grossman to be vastly overrated. The Bears' appeal as a potential Madden Team stems entirely from one man; Devin Hester. As has been previously discussed, while the Bears' move of Hester to WR could have minimal impact on the real NFL season it could potentially transform the Bears into a Madden juggernaut. Adding Hester and his first ever 100 speed rating to the offensive side of the ball could lead to players exploiting his abilities in a Reggie Bush type role. If the Madden developers give Hester a catch rating high enough that he can grab a swing pass 4/5 times, watch out. The defense is already stacked, and the addition of Hester just might Rex-proof the Bears' virtual offense.

Detroit Lions:
Even though a gimpy Kevin Jones might not make much of an impact for the Lions this year, he may be the key to the Lions offense being hellish on Madden this year. Jones had an 87 overall rating on last year's game and this year he will be joined in the Lions backfield by Tatum Bell (84 last year) and TJ Duckett (84 last year). The trio of Jones, Bell, and Duckett will give players the best situational set of RBs (besides LT, LT, and LT for the Chargers) in the game. Jones will be a decent every-down back, but the added luxury of having the speedy Bell as a 3rd down / receiving back and having the game's top short yardage guy in Duckett will create matchup nightmares for opposing defenders. That doesn't even take into account that the Lions will also add Calvin Johnson to the WR corps along with Roy Williams, making the virtual version of the Lions offense truly fearsome.

New York Giants:
The Giants have been one of the biggest Madden Teams in recent years, and that doesn't look to change this year. On defense the Giants could have a huge real life/video game discrepancy if Michael Strahan does in fact retire. Strahan had a 97 rating last year, and shouldn't fall off much this year. Where the video game Giants are truly exceptional though, is on offense. For starters, Eli Manning and Jeremy Shockey are always overrated. It has been revealed that Shockey will be a 92 in this year's game, and in spite of being one of the lowest rated QBs in the league since he has been drafted Eli Manning somehow continues to get Madden ratings in the upper 80's (88 last year). Not only do the Giants have overrated players, they have players whose skills are uniquely suited to exploit some of Madden's game play weaknesses. For example, Plaxico Burress' height makes it nearly impossible to stop a player using the Giants from completing high balls to Plaxico on quick slant patterns. In addition to Plaxico the Giants also have Brandon Jacobs, who has one of the highest "Trucking" ratings in the game. What that means is that pretty much anytime a player wants, they can slam Jacobs straight up the gut for 3-4 yards, even on higher difficulty settings. To make matters worse this year, Jacobs overall rating has risen from 80 to 85 and he is joined in the backfield by Reuben Droughns, who also has an extremely high truck rating. One of my friends is a highly rated Madden player on PC, and he uses the Giants and these two strategies almost exclusively.

New England Patriots:
If you didn't already know, the Patriots are the highest rated team in this year's game with a 97 overall team rating. I'm not saying that they don't deserve to be rated that highly but there are a few factors that could cause them to be almost unstoppable in Madden, kind of like how the Colorado Avalanche were good in real life yet unstoppable in video game form. The Patriots have two linebackers that may or may not have much of an impact in real life depending on injuries (Teddy Bruschi and Roosevelt Colvin) who will still be highly rated in the game (Both were rated 89 overall last year). The video game Patriots could also have the services of Asante Samuel even if the real player sits out until week 10. Add those three wild cards to a defense that already features highly rated players such as Rodney Harrison, Mike Vrabel, Richard Seymour, Eugene Wilson, Vince Wilfork, and Adalius Thomas, and you can see why the video game Patriots D will be extremely formidable. On offense the Patriots added Randy Moss, Wes Welker, and Dante Stallworth to the WR corp, suddenly turning a poor unit into one of the top 10 in the game. Adding those weapons to Tom Brady and Laurence Maroney will make the Patriots one ridiculously good offense.

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If Babes Were Baseball Players

2007-08-02T13:11:00.000-05:00

The trading deadline is past. Barry isn't hitting homers. A-Rod isn't hitting homers. Tom Glavine isn't winning. What is there left to talk about? I know; if today's celeb bikini beach crew were baseball players, who would they be?

Brooke Hogan = Barry Bonds

Lets compare Brooke Hogan and Barry Bonds...artificially enhanced? Check and Check. Looks like a man? Check and Check. Famous fathers? Check and Check. Steroids coursing through their veins? Check and Check. (Poor Brooke was born with em)

Cindy Crawford = Roger Clemens

Now this is how you would want to look when you are in your 40's. No, not like Clemens, like Cindy. Do you realize that she is 41 years old? Good grief. The Rocket is the only major leauger that is throwing heat equal to Cindy's at such an advanced age.

Britney Spears = Barry Zito

Isn't it a shame to see a once promising career go down in flames? This duo has gone from winning Grammys and Cy Youngs to losing hair and baseball games. Even though Zito's fastball has fallen into the 80's, Britney's hotness factor has fallen even lower.

Lindsay Lohan = Elijah Dukes

Both Lohan and Dukes seem to have all the right tools. Potential. Perfect physiques. Power. Too bad they also have something else in common; breaking the law. Between Lindsay's DUIs and Elijah's myriad of troubles, we may not see much of either of them except for on cable news gossip shows. (Interesting note; The picture for this one, with no cropping of my own, came out to exactly 666 pixels in width. I'm not sayin...I'm just sayin.)

Hayden Panettiere = Hanley Ramirez

They're both young. They're both sleek. They're both poised to become huge stars within the next year or two. And ~~they both~~ one of them looks great in bikinis.

Hillary Duff = Pittsburgh Pirates

Hillary sees all of the attention that Lindsay, Hayden, and Paris get for romping around in bikinis, so she decided to give it a try. When she does it though...it is just a little awkward. Kind of like how the Pirates wanted to feel like the Yankees and Red Sox for a day, so they went out and traded for a big money player in Matt Morriss. It is just that when the Pirates try to spend money, they do it awkwardly.

Paris Hilton = Alex Rodriguez

People will say that Paris and Alex are both spoiled rich, which is probably true. In their defense however, they are both extremely good at what they do. A-Rod is the best player in the majors right now and Paris does her best giving Fox News something to thumb their nose at every night. They also both have embarrassing incidents in their past, Paris with her sex tape and Alex with his Toronto stripper.

*As always, feel free to leave more suggestions in the comments, and I will update as needed.

UPDATE:

Lauren Conrad = Ernie Banks

Anonymous said...
"I would put LC from the Hills together with Ernie Banks...both are/were perpetually with a loser."

Tara Reid = Pat Burrell

Anonymous said...
"5 Years ago you would've done anything to meet Tara or have Burrell on your team, but now they are used up shells of what they once were and you just wish they'd take there old saggy bodies and go into hiding!"

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Vince Young Has Your Back Mr. Roby

2007-08-01T23:08:00.000-05:00

Training camp fights happen every year in the NFL. It is as much a certainty as rookie holdouts and false Patriots' injury reports. What isn't as common as training camp fights though, are training camp fights involving a franchise player. That is exactly what happened at Titans camp on Wednesday, as Vince Young took exception to a nasty hit applied to TE Courtney Roby by safety Donny Nickey. Here is the video of the altercation (Video via NewsChannel 5.com);

So that you don't think that Vince Young is completely overreacting in this situation, here is a bit of context on the fight;

"A play earlier, Nickey had leveled receiver Joel Filani with a clean hit in the middle of the field as Filani jumped to try to corral a pass."

This might have been one thing if Nickey was a big time player, but we are talking about a guy who primarily plays special teams. For a guy like that to put a big hit on a WR, put a dirty hit on a TE, and then try to fight the franchise QB...well, lets just say Mr. Nickey better hope that the Titans' roster cuts are kind this year.

As for Vince Young? It would always be bad for a QB to throw a punch with his throwing hand, but also consider the fact that Young is on the cover of the upcoming Madden 2008. Given the history of the Madden Curse he is lucky he didn't shatter his hand into a million pieces on Nickey's helmet.

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Before You Declare A Winner...

2007-08-01T15:35:00.000-05:00

In the aftermath of the Kevin Garnett trade every sportswriter, blogger, and watercooler guy has jumped in to declare a definitive "winner" and a definitive "loser" in the deal. The thing is though, it is way too early to make such a determination. I am not suggesting that we need to see how Garnett plays with the Celtics. My hesitation involves the two most underrated assests involved in the trade; the two first round picks.

The "future first round pick" in the NBA is the equivalent of the "player to be named later" in baseball trades. The pick usually remains unnoticed until the draft comes around, at which time everyone says "Man, how are the Bulls picking 9th this year?" (If you were wondering, the answer to that question is the Eddy Curry deal with New York.) Not only will the Timberwolves have the Celtics pick (probably somewhere between 14-20), but they also get their own first round pick back that they had traded to Boston in the Ricky Davis deal. If the Wolves are as bad the next couple of years as some people think they will be, that pick very well could turn out to be a top 5 selection, which could completely change the complexion of the Garnett trade.

For the sake of fun, here is a look at the top ten players that were selected with picks that were traded before the draft;

10. Ron Artest
Drafted: #16 by the Bulls in 1999
Pick From: Phoenix Suns

9. Michael Finley
Drafted: #21 by the Suns in 1995
Pick From: LA Lakers

8. Antoine Walker
Drafted: #6 by the Celtics in 1996
Pick From: Dallas Mavericks

7. Emeka Okafor
Drafted: #2 by the Bobcats in 2004
Pick From: LA Clippers

6. Shawn Kemp
Drafted: #17 by the Sonics in 1989
Pick From: Philadelphia 76ers

5. Detlef Schrempf
Drafted: #8 by the Mavericks in 1985
Pick From: Cleveland Cavaliers

4. Shawn Marion
Drafted: #9 by the Suns in 1999
Pick From: Dallas Mavericks

3. Scottie Pippen
Drafted: #5 by the Sonics in 1987
Pick From: New York Knicks

2. James Worthy
Drafted: #1 by the Lakers in 1982
Pick From: Cleveland Cavaliers

1. Charles Barkley
Drafted: #5 by the 76ers in 1984
Pick From: LA Clippers

I have to admit, it is pretty interesting that there are some repeat offenders on this list. The Clippers traded away Charles Barkley and Emeka Okafor, the Cavs traded James Worthy and Detlef Schrempf, and the Mavs traded both Shawn Marion and Antoine Walker. If one of the first round picks from the Garnett trade turns out like one of these, perhaps the Wolves will come out looking a lot better than people are giving them credit for right now.

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Jerry Jones Says "Slooooow Down"

2007-08-01T12:29:00.000-05:00

Jerry Jones is mad at someone.

Contract holdout Gregg Ellis? Nope.
T.O.? Nope.
New coach Wade Phillips? Not him either.
Redskins owner Dan Snyder? Probably, but he isn't who we are talking about.

Jones is actually a little miffed at his new defensive coordinator Brian Stewart for having the audacity to have the defensive lineman...ugh, it is so disgusting I can barely even say it...he dared to have the defensive linemen run sprints:

Jones was upset with defensive coordinator Brian Stewart after Stewart made the defensive linemen run sprints Monday that left Hatcher with a strained left hamstring.

At a coaches meeting following practice, Jones was angry about the drill being run without the players warming up.

Hatcher was injured when Stewart made the linemen run during special teams practice Monday at the Alamodome. Hatcher, who tied for the team lead with seven quarterback pressures last season, is day-to-day, and he has a slight limp.

Seriously, what on earth was Stewart thinking? Asking a defensive lineman to run more than a few feet at a time? At least Jerry Jones is around to protect these precious creatures, as he obviously appreciates the rare and fragile beings that are linemen. Can't Stewart understand that special teams practice is a time for linemen to drink Gatorade, lie down, have grapes fed to them by concubines, and just generally be fawned over? Jones might need to re-think his hiring of Stewart, I mean, who wants a coach that is actually trying to make the team better?

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OJ Gets Pranked During Interview

2007-07-31T20:29:00.000-05:00

OJ Simpson just doesn't know when to stop. Now he is doing a series of interviews with website MN1...yeah, I don't know what on earth it is either...and while half of the show consists of a scripted interview with MN1, the second half is live call-in questions. Did they really think this was going to end well? TMZ blesses us with this highlight video from the call-in portion of OJ's interview. Watch and enjoy as OJ answers questions such as "Do you think it was a bigger feat to break 2,000 yards in one season or slice two necks in one night?" and "Did you kill Bill Walsh?"

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The Giants DE Soap Opera

2007-07-31T12:41:00.000-05:00

Jealousy. Betrayal. Infighting. Insults.

Is this the plot of your mom's favorite soap opera?

No, it is just the best way to describe the insane situation going on right now with the New York Giant's defensive ends.

First, Michael Strahan decided that he didn't feel that the Giants were going to contend for a Super Bowl this year and has since been mulling retirement instead of reporting to training camp. An aging star thinking about retiring isn't all that odd, but then you throw in this odd phone tag exchange and things just get a little weird;

"Strahan left a phone message late last night for coach Tom Coughlin. Coughlin returned the call at about 5 a.m. today and got Strahan's voicemail. As of right now, Reese has yet to talk to Strahan, and it's unclear if Coughlin has spoken to the six-time Pro Bowl selection"

Thankfully for the Giants, a perfect replacement for Strahan has just in the market, in the person of the recently released Simeon Rice. Losing the current sack leader among active players and gaining the second place guy doesn't sound like too much of drop off. Well, according to Strahan's good buddy/fellow defensive end Osi Umenyiora, it is actually a terrible idea. Smell a little bias in this one, especially considering Umenyiora and Strahan share an agent? Umenyiora has laid out quite the welcome mat for Simeon Rice in the past few days;

"We're not talking about Julius Peppers," Umenyiora said, comparing Rice to the Panthers' stud defensive end. "Simeon Rice is an outstanding pass rusher, but that's what he is."

"I'm not going to go so far as to call him, whatever, what a lot of other people have called him, but people say he's not the best run player," Umenyiora said. "I guess people gave him that reputation for a reason."

"That's kind of crazy, to ask me to move to left defensive end because Simeon Rice is coming in," he said. "It's ridiculous. He can't play left defensive end; that's where teams run the ball at. If the team asks me 'We need you to move to left defensive end because we need you at that position,' I will, but I'm not going to move to left defensive end because Simeon Rice is coming in."

So Osi...you do realize that this guy is probably going to be your teammate in a week or two, right? It might not be the greatest idea to diss his talent, call him one dimensional, and state your unwillingness to accomodate his being on the team, all in one interview. Listening to Umenyiora talk about Rice is like hearing a teenage girl ripping some young hussy that is moving in on a friend's ex-boyfriend. "Psst. I heard Simeon Rice stuffs his shoulder pads, pass it on."

All is not lost though. The Giants still have another promising young DE in Mathias Kiwanuka...oh, except that they moved Kiwanuka to LB, and have said he isn't going back. Well, I'm sure Mathias is doing pretty well at his new position, right? Yes, if you define "doing well" as "getting burned on a pass play by a guard";

The Giants did not practice yesterday but Kiwanuka was still smarting about what transpired in Sunday's afternoon session. Lining up for a field goal, holder Jeff Feagles put on a "Fire" call, which simulates a bad snap. Feagles took the ball, rolled to his right and fired a perfect pass to Seubert, who once played some tight end at Western Illinois. The burly Seubert went slightly airborne to make the catch, with Kiwanuka trailing.

"I think I got both feet off the ground," Seubert deadpanned. "I don't think [Kiwanuka] saw the ball. I guess I can jump a little higher than he can. They should honor me as a receiver now. Jeremy or me, there's no difference."

To recap...one of your starting DEs is threatening to retire, your other starting DE is talking smack about the first guy's potential replacement, and your third best pass rusher is getting burned by an offensive lineman on a passing play. Have fun with that Tom Coughlin.

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Is This A Good Trade For Boston?

2007-07-31T01:19:00.000-05:00

In case you slept through the entire day yesterday, you probably know that Kevin Garnett is going to Boston. (ESPN, SI, and Sportsline all say it is agreed to, so if it falls through blame them, not me.) So now that the deal is essentially done, lets take a look at both what Boston had to give up and what they have left.

Going: First, here is what they are reported to be sending to Minnesota;

Al Jefferson
Gerald Green
Sebastian Telfair
Ryan Gomes
Theo Ratliff
2 future 1st Round Picks

In order to get KG Danny Ainge had to sell his soul and do what he had said all along he didn't want to do; deal all of his young talent. Giving up Al Jefferson really hurts. In case you didn't get the chance to see Jefferson in the second half of the season last year, here is what you need to know. Before the All Star break Jefferson posted these stats; 13.9 PTS, 10.6 REB, 1.45 BLK, .484 FG%. After the break his numbers looked like this; 19.8 PTS, 11.5 REB, 1.68 BLK, .554 FG%. Point being, Jefferson was just starting to come out of his shell at the end of last season, and was poised to become a 20-10 threat this upcoming year. Giving up a 22 year old with that kind of talent is a huge risk for the Celtics to take.

Besides Jefferson, Gerald Green also has potential to develop into a big time player in the NBA. The certainty of his development however, is much less certain than Jefferson's. Some people think Green could be a consistent 20 PPG scorer on the wing; some think he is no better than a backup. If Green comes out somewhere inbetween, the Timberwolves would have a pretty good tandem on their hands with Green and Corey Brewer on the wing.

Telfair and Gomes are both in the trade mainly to even out the salary cap, but both have the potential to be develop into decent bench players. The real key to this trade could be the second draft pick, which is actually the draft pick that Minnesota sent to Boston back in the Wally for Ricky trade a few years back. Considering that the Wolves might be the worst team in the West for the next two seasons, that pick very well could be a top 5 selection. Add a top 5 pick to a core of Jefferson, Green, Brewer, and Randy Foye, and in three years time Kevin McHale and the Timberwolves could end up looking pretty smart.

Coming: There is no questioning that the Celtics are getting a major talent back in this trade. Despite being 31 years old and a 12 year NBA veteran, Garnett is still one of the top ten players in the NBA. (To be more precise since people throw around that phrase all the time, I'd say he is the 7th best player in the league right now.) Garnett still has at least 2-3 years of prime ball left in him, during which time he will be without a doubt 1.) the best passing big man in the East 2.) the best defender in the East and 3.) a dominant offesive force. After those 2-3 prime years? He'll likely lose a little of the explosion he has on defense and offense but he will still be the hungriest guy on the court, and passing skills don't really fade with time.

Left: Here is where the plot thickens. Everyone knows about the newly formed trio of KG, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen. Will they be good? Yeah. Will they make the playoffs? Yeah. Will they win the East? Well, to answer that one lets take a look at what the Celtics will have other than the big three;

Rajon Rondo
Kendrick Perkins
Brian Scalabrine
Tony Allen
Leon Powe
Brandon Wallace
Glen Davis
Gabe Pruitt

Now, consider that two of those players will be starting for the Celtics every night (Rondo and Perkins), and that another two will be playing at least 25 minutes a night, and now you begin to see the potential downside of this deal. Brian Scalabrine is the 6th Man...need I say more? There is an obvious move that the Celtics can make that will help them greatly. Sign Brevin Knight. Sign him tomorrow. Sign him before you even eat breakfast tomorrow. That one deal may well be the difference between next year's Celtics team being a mere playoff team and being the Eastern Conference champions. Knight was made for this role. Think about it; Rondo is talented but raw. Who better to step in for a year to teach him than Knight, who is an undersized defensive specialist just like Rondo? Knight would also be the perfect fit to play with the big three. He doesn't need to take shots, and is one of the best pure passing point guards in the game. The sad thing for the Celtics is that they didn't make this trade two weeks ago. If they had, then in addition to Knight they could have added Jamaal Magloire at center to complete the starting lineup. Tell me a lineup of Knight, Allen, Pierce, Garnett, and Magloire wouldn't be a whole heck of a lot better than a lineup with Rando and Perkins instead.

The Verdict:As things stand right now, Boston will be hard pressed to win the East with their current team. I think both Miami and Detroit would still beat them in a playoff series. Also, if you really think about it, are these new Celtics really any better than Cleveland, Washington, Chicago, Toronto, or New Jersey? And hasn't the three star philosophy been tried recently in the East to lackluster results? (See; Arenas-Jamison-Butler and Kidd-Carter-Jefferson) Also, for all of the "Celtics will smash the East, the East sucks" people, here is a newsflash for you; the East got a lot better when you weren't looking. Let's start at the bottom. Milwaukee had Michael Redd, Charlie Villanueva, and Bobby Simmons hurt for large parts of last season, and now add Yi Jianlian to a now healthy team. The Knicks were able to add Zach Randolph for essentially nothing. The Bobcats traded for Jason Richardson and also look to get full seasons from Primoz Brezec, Sean May, and Walter Herrman. The 76ers ended the season on a 17-9 run when you weren't looking, and then added Thaddeus Young through the draft. The Magic signed Rashard Lewis. The Wizards look to have a healthy Gilbert Arenas. The Heat look forward to full years from the recently injured Shaq and D-Wade. I say all that to say this; if you are ready to say the Celtics, last year's worst Eastern team, are the top team in the East this year, you are ignoring reality. The whole Eastern Conference upgraded this offseason, and the Celtics look to be in the middle of the pack.

So will the trade be worth it? Short-term, yes. The Celtics will be a playoff team, and depending on the secondary moves Ainge makes they could challenge for the East a season or two from now. Will they win a championship? Probably not. They would be completely outclassed at the point and outcoached by any of the top Western Conference teams if the Celts were to reach the Finals. In the long term the trade is awful. Just plain rotten. After their 3-4 year window runs up, and they have maybe won two Eastern Conference titles, they will have nothing but a luxury tax roster with lottery team talent. It is obvious that Ainge made the move knowing his job was likely on the line, but he may well have just given himself a 4 year lease instead of long term security.

As The Daunte Turns

2007-07-31T00:32:00.000-05:00

Do you want to know the definition of a really bad day for an NFL QB?

It's when a team chooses to sign Tim Couch instead of you.

That is exactly what happened to Daunte Culpepper this weekend, as the Jaxsonville Jaguars decided to go with the NFL's version of Nikoloz Tskitishvili instead of Daunte. What is especially troublesome about this development for Daunte is that the Jaguars were assumed to be the perfect fit. It was a foregone conclusion that he was going there. So what went wrong? Evidently the deal fell apart because Daunte wanted a one year deal, and the Jaguars were looking for something in the 2-3 year range. In examining the situation, both sides were right to stick to their guns. The Jags want two things, 1.) security behind Byron Leftwich and 2.) someone to push Leftwich. A one year deal would not have really fulfilled either of those needs. For Culpepper, a one year deal will help him prove that he is truly healthy whil allowing him the ability to pursue a starting job next year, or at least get premium backup money. Any contract Culpepper will sign this summer will be at a large discount, so minimizing the length of this deal is to Culpepper's advantage.

Now that the Jaguars are out of the running, where does Daunte land this year?
If you trust John Clayton over at ESPN, Tampa Bay looks like a contender. If that were to actually happen, and the Bucs added Daunte to a stable that already hosts Jeff Garcia, Chris Simms, Bruce Gradkowski, Luke McCown, and the rights to Jake Plummer, I would quit blogging and apply to become the new Bucs GM, since the current one is obviously an imbecile. All kidding aside, Clayton also throws out the Rams and Ravens as possible destinations for Daunte. I'm not sure where he came up with those two teams but hey, it's John Clayton, so I'll cut him some slack.

The momentum in signing Culpepper however, seems to lie with the Raiders. Culpepper is scheduled to work out for the Raiders in California today, and signing with Oakland just might be the perfect deal for him. JaMarcus Russell is still holding out, and with him unlikely the be ready to start at the beggining of the season the Raiders are looking at starting either Josh McCown or Andrew Walter at QB for the first 6-10 games of the season. Would an 80-90% healthy Culpepper be better than those two guys? Probably. Would starting for half a year be better for Culpepper's free agent chances next year than sitting behind Jeff Garcia in Tampa Bay? Certainly. Is there a better QB for Russell to learn from than Culpepper, the man he is a clone of? Not a chance.

Now...there is one other destination for Culpepper; Minnesota. Ok, maybe Daunte did not leave on the best of terms, but for goodness sakes, the Vikings are headed into the season with Tavaris Jackson as their starter with Brooks Bollinger as the backup. If the Vikings were a baby Zygi Wilf and Minnesota management would be charged with child neglect. Seriously, how can you not at least consider bringing in Daunte for a year? After seeing Jackson flee the pocket constantly and throw interceptions in the few games he played last season, does Brad Childress really believe that he couldn't use one more year of learning before being thrown into the fire? Maybe they are blind up in Minnesota, but Daunte looks like a good fit there to me. Wherever he lands, one thing can be for sure; he won't be looking to stay there long.

Ainge's Risk

2007-07-30T11:53:00.000-05:00

The story that won't die has reared its head once again; Kevin Garnett might be traded.

The punchline to this joke? The trade being discussed (and in some reports the trade that is done) is KG going to Boston.

Didn't he veto that one already?

This time around the landscape is a little different from both the Celtics' and KG's perspective. For KG, Ray Allen being added to the roster along with Paul Pierce now makes Boston look a lot more attractive, perhaps attractive enough to sign a long-term extension with the Celtics. For the Celtics, having three All-Stars (Pierce, Garnett, and Allen) looks a lot better on paper than having two, and would certainly push them inot the Finals out of the weak East. Right?

Sorry to burst everyone's bubble, but sometimes 2 can be greater than 3. In this case adding either KG or Ray Allen, alone, could have theoretically benefited the Celtics in both the short and long term. Adding both players however, is going to essentially gut the entire Celtics roster. Just take a look at what the Celtics are reported to be giving up in the KG trade;

Al Jefferson
Gerald Green
Sebastian Telfair
Theo Ratliff

Also take a look at what they already gave up for Allen;

Jeff Green
Delonte West
Wally Szczerbiak

Taken alone, both trades would have left the Celtics with some talent to develop around their newly imported All Star. Both trades though? As great as Allen and KG are and have been in their careers, you are talking about two men in their 30's that are likely on the downsides of their careers. To get these two players the Celtics are sacrificing two decent young talents (West and Telfair), two youngsters that could become All Stars (J. Green and G. Green), and one young guy who will be an All Star, and soon (Jefferson).

In spite of the talent purge that would take place if KG were to come to town, in the mind of Danny Ainge it would be worth it if the move led to an NBA championship. The obvious question then, is will adding KG bring a title to Boston? The answer is by no means simple. Having two All Stars on one team can be hard enough (See; Nuggets, Denver), but having three? The success of the deal would hinge entirely on the ability of Pierce, Allen, and KG to come together as a cohesive unit. Whether they will be able to or not is anyone's guess.

So lets just suppose that the experiment does go pretty well. KG leads the Celtics to the Eastern Conference championship. Then what? Would a Celtics team without a PG, without a C, and without any bench depth whatsoever be able to beat the Spurs? The Suns? The Mavs? No way on earth would that happen. In a best case scenario the Celtics might win the East a couple of times in the next 3-4 years. Barring a major dose of luck in the draft however, the Celtics will not be able to add any players of substance to help their All Star trio over the hump to becoming NBA champs. And the aftermath of such a 3-4 year run could be ugly. Aging stars Pierce, Allen, and Garnett will fall off in productivity while their contracts continue to rise, and there won't be a Gerald Green, Jeff Green, or Al Jefferson waiting in the wings to pick up the slack. They will all be too busy playing on the Western Conference All Star team.

"Negative Qoutes About Losers"

2007-07-30T11:03:00.000-05:00

Another week down, another post of fun google searches. This week the dominant search that brought people to the site was either some permutation of "mike vick update" or "ron mexico t-shirt". "Snorg girl" and "Mark Kotsay's wife" are still going strong, but have lagged considerably behind the search monster that is the Vick scandal.

Now on to the fun stuff. Here are a few of the odder searches that brought people to this neck of the woods:

"40 and older slam dunk contest"
"battle of the jordan"
"gophergutz"
"marline monroe hot kissing video"

Good searches all, but none of them can stand up to this weeks' winner of the "WTB Search Of The Week Award", which goes to;

"negative qoutes about losers"

Why is this search great? As with all of the great searches I have featured here, the image of the person searching this just cracks me up. With this one I imagine some high school bully who has been recently rebuffed by an intelligent quip by one of his victims. Tired of merely pounding his foil into submission, he goes home and googles "negative qoutes about losers" to find some witty ammo. And what did he find? A post of mine about Yi Jianlian. Go figure.

Dice-K Is Looking Like...Aaron Harang

2007-07-30T10:41:00.000-05:00

Going into Sunday night's game against the Devil Rays, the worst team in baseball, most people would have guessed that Dice-K would pitch well and get a win. Well, that would be half right. Dice-K pitched 6.1 innings and only gave up two earned runs, but the Red Sox bats fell silent against Scott Kazmir and the Devil Rays in a 5-2 loss. This was Dice-K's second straight quality start after falling off the wagon a bit with three consecutive non-quality starts in the middle of July. As the Red Sox get ready for the stretch run, with the Yankees creeping ever closer, Boston has to be hoping that they get "Good Dice-K" down the stretch. If "Bad Dice-K" happens to come back, the Red Sox could find themselves in a tough spot come September.

As far as comparisons go, this week was tougher than others. This week Dice-K is looking like Aaron Harang. Harang matches up with Dice-K almost perfectly in three out of the four areas I look at each week, but he is way off in terms of quality start percentage. I decided to investigate as to why, and it turns out that the culprit behind Harang's .49 QS% was 7 starts over six innings in which Harang gave up exactly 4 ER. (You can only give up 3 ER to qualify as a quality start) So even though the number looks bad, Harang is a lot closer to Dice-K that it would seem.

Dice-K 2007:
W%: .6
QS%: .64
ERA: 3.75
WHIP: 1.27
Salary: $6,333,333

Harang 2006:
W%: .59
QS%: .49
ERA: 3.76
WHIP: 1.27
Salary: $2,350,000

Paxson's New Problem

2007-07-28T17:51:00.000-05:00

One NBA player being robbed at gunpoint is frightening.

Two NBA players being robbed at gunpoint within weeks of one another, in the same city, sure feels like something even worse.

In an incident eerily similar to what happened to Antoine Walker three weeks ago, the Knicks' Eddy Curry was robbed today at his Chicago area home;

"Deputy chief of police John Madden said three offenders restrained Curry, his family and an employee with duct tape inside the Burr Ridge home."

While the primary concern in both Walker and Curry's situations rests with their safety and well being, the timing and location of the two robberies should also concern someone else;

The Chicago Bulls and GM John Paxson.

Whether it is fair or not, these two robberies are going to give the perception around the NBA that players in Chicago are being targeted. Only time will tell whether or not the two robberies are linked in some way, but at present the robberies are going to make Chicago seem like a much less attractive destination for NBA players than it was at the beggining of July.

The timing is especially troubling given the fact that the Bulls were obviously aiming to make a big push next Summer in free agency. The Bulls were set to enter the 2008 offseason with more cap space than almost any NBA team. The 2008 free agent class should feature far more star power than this year, with the likes of Kevin Garnett, Baron Davis, Antawn Jamison, Shawn Marion, and Jermaine O'Neal likely being available. Now that Chicago seems a little less safe for NBA players than it did just a month ago, how will that change the thinking of a player like Garnett or O'Neal if they are offered similar money by both the Bulls and another team?

What Chicago may end up doing, and what they may have done regardless of the two robberies, is focus on signing their young core to lucrative extensions. It is almost certain that the Bulls will sign Luol Deng long term, but if the Bulls are unable to sign any big ticket free agents next Summer they would be much more likely to re-sign the likes of Ben Gordon and Chris Duhon. Only time will tell if the two recent robberies will force Chicago's hand in choosing whether to maintain their core or to go the free agent route.

Thanks For Choosing Milwaukee

2007-07-28T17:04:00.000-05:00

Mo Williams faced a touch choice this Summer as a free agent; take less moeny to go to Miami and possibly be a part of a championship team with Shaq and D-Wade, or take the big money to stay in Milwaukee and be a part of the Bucks' rebuilding process.

Williams chose Milwaukee, but early indications are that perhaps he should have headed down to South Beach. Why? Evidently being in Milwaukee also means having your car robbed;

"...Thursday, however, he was filing information with Milwaukee police alleging that someone broke into his 2005 Dodge Magnum in the 1800 block of E. Kenilworth Ave. about 2:15 a.m.

Thieves got away with two LCD screens from the head rests, a navigation system and a radio/DVD player, according to a police report.

Damage and loss are estimated at $3,000."

I'm sure that this is just the kind of news that Sen. Herb Kohl and Bucks management love to hear while trying to convince Yi Jianlian that Milwaukee really is a wonderful place to live.

Brady Quinn, Meet Reality

2007-07-28T16:27:00.000-05:00

The Cleveland Browns have reached contract agreements with two of their top three picks, including third overall pick Joe Thomas. The lone holdout? Brady Quinn of course. Quinn and the Browns find themselves in an odd position. On one hand, the Browns believe that Brady was one of the top players from this year's draft, and that he could possibly be thier quarterback for the next decade so it would figure that they would give him a big contract. On the other hand, Quinn wasn't one of the top players selected in the draft after falling to #22, and as such it would figure that he shouldn't get top ten type money.

The good thing for the Browns in this situation is that even though Quinn's situation is unusual, it is not unique.

Nearly the same exact situation occured just two years ago with Aaron Rodgers and the Packers. Rodgers, like Quinn, had been universally projected to go in the first ten picks of the draft only to fall into the twenties. As such, Rodgers' contract with the Packers is a good starting point in attempting to figure out what Quinn's deal should look like.

Rodgers signed a deal with the Packers for five years and $7.7 million, with $5.4 million in guarantees. The contract also contains escalators and incentives, mainly based on Rodgers ability to become the Packers' starter, that could push the total value of the contract to $24.52 million.

Quinn does have a few factors in his favor that would aid in being able to negotiate a larger deal than Rodgers. For one thing, he was selected two spots higher. He also has both a better pedigree than Rodgers did coming out of college, as well as greater marketing potential for the Browns. The league salary cap has alos gone up in the past two years. Given all of these factors, how much more should Brady expect?

First off, he should get higher base compensation so move that $7.7 million to something more like $8.5 million. Then take the guaranteed money and move it from $5.4 million to the $7 million range. Next take the total possible value of the contract after incentives and escalators and move it from $24.52 million to about $28 million.

What makes this situation so contentious and potentially prolonged however, is the fact that Brady and his agent think Brady should get top ten money. Quinn's agent is Tom Condon, who just happens to represent Matt Leinart. Leinart was selected 10th in last year's darft, and also had the distinction of being the longest holdout of any draft pick from last year.

If Quinn and his agent think he should be paid more like Leinart, let's take a peek at the deal Leinart signed with the Cardinals. Leinart's deal was for six years and a total possible value of $50.8 million, with $14 million guaranteed. Compare those numbers to the contract I proposed above based upon Brady's draft position and history, and you can see that there is about a $7 million gap in guaranteed money and over $20 million difference in total value.

Any advantage the Browns gained in selecting Quinn at the #22 spot would be completely mitigated if they were to go much higher than the $30 million deal proposed above. So how is this situation going to play out? If I had to guess, I'd say that Browns fans should be prepared for a long holdout followed by a year of Charlie Frye or Derek Anderson behind center.

Third Time's A Shame

2007-07-27T12:13:00.000-05:00

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers won the Super Bowl just four seasons ago.

Seems longer than that doesn't it?

In the four years since that Super Bowl victory the Bucs have gone 27-37 and are coming off an especially dismal 4-12 campaign. So what has gone wrong? There are a number of possible answers to that question, but one answer has come to the forefront in the past day after the Bucs cut Simeon Rice. Rice was one of the five defensive stars on Tampa's Super Bowl winning team, along with Derrick Brooks, Ronde Barber, John Lynch, and Warren Sapp. Rice is also the third casualty of that group, along with Lynch and Sapp. Both of those players have gone on to make Tampa look foolish by continuing to perform at a high level for their new teams. Will Rice continue that trend?

Consider this; Rice had a shoulder injury that should have sidelined him the entire season. Instead of sitting out though, he played eight mostly ineffective games and only amassed two sacks. So after one injury shortened season the Bucs demanded that Rice take a pay cut, or they would release him. He said no, and they cut him. Never mind the fact that Rice 1.) has the second most sacks of any active player and 2.) had turned in five consecutive seasons with 11 sacks or more for the Bucs prior to last year. Have the Bucs learned nothing from how the Lynch and Sapp situations turned out?

Even worse that the prospect of Rice continuing to perform well for another team though, is the damage that the move has done to the team's morale. Just take a look at this qoute;

"[Derrick] Brooks was almost in tears," said Rice, who ran into the Bucs long-standing weakside linebacker in the hotel parking lot just minutes after being told of his fate.

The Bucs players are scared now. Don't believe me? Just ask their punter;

"Shocker, eh?" punter Josh Bidwell said. "I'd better play well because nobody is safe. I'm as shocked as you are."

The obvious question now is whether or not the Bucs made the right move. My gut feeling is that the answer is a resounding "No". An elite pass rusher like Rice doesn't just lose it after one injury. I'd be willing to wager that Rice will get snatched up by another team quickly (Washington...please?), and will make the Bucs rue the day they decided to cut an aging defensive star for money concerns.

It didn't really change their thinking the first two times it happened, did it?

Examining The "Evidence"

2007-07-26T13:12:00.000-05:00

Last night ESPN aired a town hall meeting to discuss the Barry Bonds scandal. After watching it I came away with two clear conclusions; 1.) St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Bryan Burwell is pretentious and thinks he is a lot smarter than he is, which is why he was booed numerous times by the crowd, and 2.) the mantra that kept being repeated against Bonds always came back to "look at these pictures, he is so much bigger now" and "how can he be so good at his age"? These two points seem to be the thrust of the Bonds steroids argument. In spite of all of the second hand allegations, there is still no person that has ever said that they saw Bonds taking steroids, and Bonds has never tested positive. So in the absence of any concrete proof, those who are certain that Bonds used steroids always come back to the two common sense arguments based on Bonds' physical change and elite performance at an advanced age.

For arguments sake, lets take a look at the these two arguments on the Bonds side, and then compare those same two arguments to another aging baseball hero; Roger Clemens.

Barry's Change:
Every single time that you hear an argument about Barry Bonds, someone flashes up a picture similar to this;

You really can't argue that Bonds has undergone quite a transformation since his rookie season with the Pirates. He went from being a lithe and skinny speedster to being a hulking slugger. The visuals speak for themselves in this regard. But don't men generally gain muscle mass as they age? Wouldn't being on a pro baseball team and having access to their weight training facilities as well as having the money to buy your own trainers also contribute to a much larger physique?

Barry's Performance:
So how on earth was Barry able to go from a really good home run hitter throughout his career to breaking the single season record at the age of 36 and then continuing to have 40 home run seasons into his 40's? Is there any precedent for such a run? The following year at age 37 Bonds hit 46 home runs, which stands as the second highest mark for a player that age. So who holds the record for age 37? Hank Aaron, with 47 homers. So how come Bonds performing at an elite level at an advanced age is an indictment against him, while Hank Aaron's performance at the end of his career is lauded as a measure of his consistency?

So now that we have looked at these two arguments as they pertain to Bonds, now lets turn our gaze to Clemens:

Roger's Change:
Do you remember what Roger Clemens looked like when he first entered the majors? Now, do you remember what he looked like with the Astros? In case you don't, here is a refresher;

You know what? Clemens got bigger as he got older. Imagine that.

Roger's Performance:
So you thought that Barry Bonds' recent performances were unbelievable for his age? Try this one on for size. In 2005 Clemens posted a 1.87 ERA at the age of 42. So how rare was this? It was the lowest ERA by a starting pitcher in their 40's since 1917, when Eddie Plank posted a 1.79 ERA. So how come Clemens can post historically amazing numbers in his 40's without arousing any suspicion, while Bonds hitting 40 homers in his 40's sets off the steroid alarm?

I'm not saying that Roger Clemens used steroids. I'm also not saying that Barry Bonds didn't use steroids. I'm merely pointing out how flimsy some of the common sense "evidence" against Bonds truly is.

NFL Rookie (Cheerleader) Preview

2007-07-26T11:45:00.000-05:00

Now that the Summer is coming to a close, thoughts of football are starting to pop up again in the collective mind of the American sports fan. Training camps. New coaches. Rookies. Hopes and expectations. And soon...

Cheerleaders.

As familiar as most fans are with the new crop of rookies entering the NFL, there seems to be a general lack of awareness concerning the new crop of sideline ladies entering the league this year. Here at WTB, we feel that it is just as important to be familiar with Lauren Gardner as it is to be familiar with JaMarcus Russell. Thankfully, this is a problem that can be easily rectified. Here is a look at this year's top rookies:

Lauren Gardner, Denver Broncos:
If there is a Rookie of the Year favorite, my vote would no doubt go to Lauren from the Broncos. Maybe I just have a thing for redheads, but Lauren is by far the best looking new cheerleader in my opinion. In case you wanted to know a little more about Lauren, she recently won the title of "2007 Face of Champ Car" which evidently involved her posing in a bikni. According to the Champ Car website Lauren is "21 years old, and a full time student. She would like to get into broadcasting."

Erica, Washington Redskins:
I'm not going to lie; I'm a Redskins fan. My bias aside however, I don't think there is much denying that Erica is one extremely attractive cheerleader. According to her bio on the Redskins' website, Erica is 26 years old and works as a public health analyst. Prior to joining the Redskins Erica danced in college at USC with the USC Flygirls.

Lisa, Buffalo Bills:
Buffalo can be an extremely cold place during football season. It's a good thing then that Bills fans will have the Jills to keep the heat up on the sidelines this year. Chief among the Jills' new additions is Lisa, whose favorite foods are "Chicken fingers and cotton candy ice cream". Just in case you were wondering.

Kristie, Carolina Panthers:
The Panthers' cheerleaders don't exactly have the most sterling repuation around the NFL. So what would be the best way to go about repairing that image? Signing up women like Kristie seems like a good place to start. Kristie lists among her greatest achievements "Graduating with bachelor's degree in radiologic science, dean's list member at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill". Brains and beauty? Sounds like David Carr will have some good conversation on the sidelines this year.

Kindle, Tennessee Titans:
Take a look at Kindle's picture real quick. Given the fact that her name also happens to be Kindle, does it really suprise you that her bio on the Titans website contains 40 exclamation points? I don't really care actually; I'd be pretty excited too if I was around a beautiful Southern blonde like Kindle.

Alaina, Philadelphia Eagles:
We move from blonde to brunette with Alaina of the Eagles, who says that her favorite ice cream is Birthday Cake Remix from Cold Stone Creamery. Alaina also went to Rutgers along with LJ Smith of the Eagles, and cheered him while he played football for the Scarlet Knights.

The Entire Houston Texans Rookie Squad:
If you only click one link today, you should do yourself a favor and take a look around the website of the Houston Texans cheerleaders. I have no idea how the Texans were able to bring in such an insanely gorgeous crop of new cheerleaders, but somehow they were able to bring in gorgeous women of all types. If there was a team award for rookies, the Texans would win in a walk. Too bad Mario Williams didn't work out as well for them last year...

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Rasmussen Out....American Streak Back In?

2007-07-25T17:05:00.000-05:00

In case you have missed this year's Tour De France, here is a little update for you;

- On July 20th it was revealed that German rider Patrik Sinkewitz tested positive for elevated testosterone levels before the tour.

- Yesterday Alexandre Vinokourov tested positive for a illegal blood transfusion. Vinokourov and his entire team (including the 5th and 8th place riders) pulled out of the tour.

- Italian rider Cristian Moreni and his entire Cofidis team withdrew from the tour today after Moreni's positive test for testosterone was revealed.

- Tour leader Michael Rasmussen was removed from the race today after his team cited violations of team rules. Rasmussen had been under suspicion ever since it was revealed that he had skipped two doping tests leading up to the tour and had been kicked off of the Danish national team.

Suffice it to say, the Tour De France is in a bit of a shambles right now. Now that the dust has settled (maybe) as far as expulsions, the new tour leader is Spaniard Alberto Contador. Contador holds a 1:53 lead with four stages remaining, but in third place lurks a rider that could continue an eight year run at the tour.

American Levi Leipheimer.

Leipheimer stands 2:49 behind Contador, his teammate on the Discovery team. If Leipheimer is able to make up the time between himself and Contador he would join Lance Armstrong and Floyd Landis as the ninth straight American winner of the Tour De France. Could it happen? Maybe. Leipheimer would likely have to make up a huge amount of ground in the time trial in stage 19, which is not out of the realm of reason.

Who knows, if a few more tests go the wrong way Leipheimer might end up winning by default.

The Franchise Tag Has To Go

2007-07-25T10:06:00.000-05:00

As most NFL fans are aware, premier defenders Asante Samuel of the New England Patriots and Lance Briggs of the Chicago Bears have been threatening to sit out the first ten weeks of the upcoming season due to their teams' use of the dreaded franchise tag upon them. News today has Briggs and the Bears close to an agreement that will get Briggs into camp instead of having him continue his holdout. The agreement, as in almost all of these types of negotiations, appears to be contingent upon the Bears promising Briggs one simple thing; don't do it again. When the franchise tag system always seems to boil down to this same point, it is time for something to change.

First, it is good to understand why exactly the franchise tag exists. Ideally, the tag should be used by teams to keep their star player for an extra season in order for them to negotiate a long term deal. Here is what the tag actually means:

"A franchise player is offered a minimum of the average of the top five salaries at his position in the previous season, or a 20 percent salary increase, whichever is greater. This type of franchise player may negotiate with other clubs. His original club has seven days to match the offer and retain the player, or receive two first-round draft choices as compensation if the original club elects not to match."

You can see the logic behind such a designation; the player gets an extremely good salary, and the team is protected during negotiations by the draft pick compensation. The problem with the system however, is that teams have begun to exploit it by franchising players they have no interest in signing long term deals with, thereby just holding them hostage for a season. They can do this with almost no risk considering that no team in their right mind would be willing to surrender two first round picks for all but a select crust of elite players, players that would never hit the franchiose tag market in the first place. The problem for the franchised player is that he is unable to truly negotiate a deal worth his market value and is unable to secure a long term deal with guaranteed money in case of an injury during the year in which he is franchised. So of course the use of the franchise tag almost inevitably leads to animosity developing between the player and the team, and the request that the team not use the designation again. Does this sound like a system that is allowing teams to keep their franchise players? Or does it sound like one that is securing one year rentals and ticking a lot of people off in the process?

Now that we have examined the problem, here is a look at two solutions to fixing the franchise problem.

Make It One Year: This is by far the simplest solution to the problem, and it would keep the original intent of the tag intact. If teams were only allowed to franchise a player for one season, then the team would still have a reasonable shot at negotiating a long term deal with the player while lessening the risk factor to the player. If the player really doesn't want to be there, fine; he can sign a big money tender for one season and then hit free agency the next summer and sign a long term deal with another club. The franchise tag was never meant to force hostage situations between a team and a franchise player, and limiting the tag to one use per player would put an end to that type of situation.

Reduce The Compensation: The shocking thing in all of this is that technically a franchised player can still sign with another team. It rarely ever happens though, since two first round picks are a ridiculous level of compensation in today's NFL. Again, players that are worth that much would never hit the franchise market in the first place. They would either be locked up to long term deals or be tagged as "exclusive" franchise players. (Meaning that they get more money but can't sign with other teams) So how do you solve this problem? Reduce the compensation to something more reasonable, like a single first round pick, or a second and a third, or even two second round picks. Lowering the compensation level would allow other teams to engage in bidding for the franchised player, which would actually increase the likelihood of the original team signing the franchised player to a long term deal since they would still be allowed the right to match the terms of any offer. And if the player got an outrageous offer? Then the team would still get compensated. Again, this simple change would return the franchise tag to its original purpose.

The Sharks Get A Makeover

2007-07-25T09:39:00.000-05:00

Yesterday the San Jose Sharks sought to rectify a problem that had always bothered me personally. The problem? If your team's name is the Sharks, shouldn't you have a much meaner logo than this?

I've always thought so anyway, especially since the slternate logo is even weaker;

I am honestly not very scared by either of those logos. Especially when your team's main color is teal, you really need to bring your A-game so far as striking fear in the hearts of your opponents through your logo. So what does the new Sharks logo look like? Well, take a look at both the standard and the two new alternate logos right here;

Do you see the differences in the two main logos? The new shark has a menacing orange eye, has sharper angled fins, a more menacing posture, and the stick in the logo is now being shattered instead of merely bent. Much better if you ask me.

The real difference though, is in the alternate fin logo. Look at the original one. A gray fin, hell it could be a dolphin for all we know, wading through trainquil white and teal water inside a soothing circle. WEAK. Look at that sexy new fin logo. A black fin, cutting through choppy waves that splash up in the air, set against an orange sky, inside an angular diamond shape. NICE. Whoever did the redesign on these logos deserves a raise, pronto.

Dice-K Is Looking Like...Erik Bedard

2007-07-25T09:20:00.000-05:00

If there is one thing that can be said about Dice-K this season, it is that he has been consistently inconsistent. In June Dice-K was one of the top three pitchers in the AL, going 5/5 on quality starts and posting a 1.59 ERA for the month. After Dice-K threw eight shutout innings in his first July start, it looked as if he was finally over the hump and ready to be the staff ace that the Sox had envisioned all along. Then Dice-K went out and laid three straight eggs, going 1-2 with no quality starts over a three game stretch.

So of course, just when it seemed like Dice-K was ready to roll over and play dead, he goes out last night and out-duels CC Sabathia, tossing seven shutout innings to beat the Indians 1-0. Go figure. After his latest performance Dice-K's most comparable pitcher from last year is actually quite good news for both Dice-K and the Sox. The most comparable pitcher is very similar in age to Dice-K and is also experiencing a great deal of sucess this season. So this week, Dice-K is looking like...Erik Bedard.

Dice-K 2007:
W%: .63
QS%: .62
ERA: 3.76
WHIP: 1.27
Salary: $6,333,333

Bedard 2006:
W%: .58
QS%: .61
ERA: 3.76
WHIP: 1.35
Salary: $1,400,000

Bonds' Ex To Appear In Playboy

2007-07-24T09:21:00.000-05:00

Just when you thought that the Barry Bonds situation couldn't get any stranger, the New York Times is reporting that Bonds' ex-girlfriend Kimberly Bell is scheduled to appear in the November issue of Playboy. And just like you might have guessed, it won't just be pictures;

Bell’s agent, David Hans Schmidt, said that in addition to the photographs would be an article detailing her “personal and sexual relationship” with Bonds.

So what kind of details might we expect from such an interview? Well, take a peek at this article from the San Francisco Chronicle after Bell testified against Bonds in the BALCO case;

"Kimberly Bell, 35, a graphic artist from San Jose who says she dated Bonds from 1994 to 2003, told the grand jury Thursday that in 2000, the left fielder confided to her that he had begun using steroids, according to two sources familiar with an account of her testimony."

To make things even more interesting, the November issue of Playboy hits newsstands October 1st, right smack in the middle of baseball's playoff drama. So if you are sick of Bonds now, get ready for a whole new round of accusations and controversy just in time to ruin your enjoyment of the playoffs.

"How To Spot Ghosts"

2007-07-23T15:51:00.000-05:00

Google Analytics really is a fun little toy. Last week I examined how the main searches that led to WTB were related to Jamie Kotsay and Alice the Snorg Girl, and both remained strong again this week. The undisputed winner however, was Ron Mexico. Here is a sampling of some of the many searches from the past week related to the dog fighting scandal;

"ron mexico dog fighting"
"dirty bird dog fighting"
"dog fighting"
"ron mexico dog"
"mike vick and ron mexico"

And as always, here are some of the more...interesting...searches;

"prices on tim duncan's starting lineup rookie doll"
"take the battle out of winning"
"thank you very much and see you friday at the latest!"
"chris carter cocaine football"

While all of those searches each have their own wonderful aspects, they are not top prize material this week. No, that distinction goes to a search that is oddly similar to last week's "How To Spot If I'm Magical". This week's "WTB Search Of The Week Award" goes to...

"how to spot ghosts"

Just like last week, I am extremely amused by thinking about the person that was googling this phrase. Did they think they were around ghosts? Did they want to find ghosts? Were they just looking for the information just in case they ever did come across a ghost? Sadly I cannot find what post popped up for this search. Maybe it has something to do with having Ghosts of Wayne Fontes on my blogroll? Anyway, maybe next week someone else in the internet world will type in "how to spot...fairies or goblins or if I am dying", and WTB will magically pop up. Actually, that is my official guess for next week's search term. "How to spot if I'm dying". Or something likewise odd.

David Beckham Means Nothing

2007-07-23T14:30:00.000-05:00

OMG OMG OMG! David Beckham is here to make the United States care about soccer! Yay!

...

Too bad that isn't going to happen...at all. David Beckham coming to the LA Galaxy will do three things; it will sell lots of Galaxy swag, it will sell lots of Galaxy tickets for a season or two, and it will cause ESPN to show you features on Beckham and Posh until your eyes bleed and puss starts coming out of your ears. That will be pretty much all that happens.

Here is the truth of the matter; American sports fans have a scoring mentality. They like home runs more than nice double plays. They like scorers like Kobe more than defensive stars like Bruce Bowen. They like TD scorers like Reggie Bush more than a field position assassin like Shane Lechler. And they surely are not going to get excited by a 32 year old midfielder that has not been a real goal scoring threat in five years. For those of you who are not familiar with soccer in general or Beckham in particular, here is a crash course. Beckham plays midfield, and even though his skills have declined in the past few years he is still extremely good on crosses, corners, and direct kicks. Translation; he is very good at setting other people up to score and on rare occasions he scores a goal on free kicks. He is not the kind of scoring talent that will finally wake America up to the world's most popular sport. Grief, at this point he is not even one of the top ten players in the world. To make matters even worse, he is on the second worst team in the MLS.

So remind me again how getting an aging, non-scoring, pretty boy and putting him on a terrible team was going to make Bud, Mike, and Dave down at the corner bar turn off NFL training camp coverage and turn on the MLS?

Look at it this way. Thinking that Beckham will save the MLS is about as dumb as sending John Stockton to Europe to stir up interest in basketball. Is he good? Yes. Is he an entertaining scorer? No. Would you send a cannon armed catcher to Japan to stir up interest in baseball by throwing out baserunners? No, of course not. The entire Beckham experiment is based upon one simple assumption; the Galaxy, MLS, and ESPN think you are dumb. They think that they can throw out a celeb name, do a bunch of interviews, and it won't matter whether or not the results on the field ever come. Here is a newsflash; American sports fans do like substance with their style. They turned on Anna Kournikova, they turned on Freddy Adu, they are turning on Michele Wie and Danica Patrick, and in a years time they will have turned on David Beckham once it becomes glaringly obvious that he is not the supreme superstar everyone had been hyping him up to be.

And you can expect an ESPN special all about it.

How To Salvage The Falcons

2007-07-23T13:13:00.000-05:00

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past week, you are probably well aware that Michael Vick has been indicted on federal charges stemming from the ongoing investigation concerning dog fighting on his property in Virginia. So given the current situation, what do the Falcons do from here? This is a two part question, and quite a complicated one at that.

First off the Falcons need to determine how to best free themselves of Vick, both from a PR standpoint as well as a business standpoint. (Make no bones about it, Vick is done in Atlanta) While some talking ~~idiots~~ heads (Read; Bayless, Skip) have proposed that the Falcons should cut Vick outright, that action would be asinine. Cutting Vick would only punish the Falcons while still giving Vick millions of dollars in guaranteed money. The Falcons would find themselves with huge cap hits in the next few years for cutting Vick, the kind of cap hell that could theoretically find them fielding a team for two or three seasons that would have to be heavily compromised of undrafted free agents. (Yes, cutting Vick outright would be that bad for their cap)

So if the Falcons can't cut him now, do they just play him? Simply put; no. The most important thing for the Falcons right now is to realize that Vick is done for this season one way or another. An NFL quarterback cannot be expected to prepare for a game during a week when he is distracted by court proceedings, or even worse, actually flying to a different state for a court appearance and missing practices. You may have heard some pundits say that "Hey, Kobe Bryant did it when he was accused of rape, so Vick can too". These pundits are idiots. Have you watched an NBA game? How much game to game preparation do you think Kobe Bryant needs between a Tuesday game against Utah and a Thursday game against Denver? The answer is nothing compared to the type of game-planning that goes into preparing an NFL QB for the myriad of defensive schemes that he has to face from week to week. Missing a week of practice and preparation would be fatal to Vick's (or any QB's) performance in a given week. Now factor in the reality that Bobby Petrino is installing a brand new offensive scheme in Atlanta this year, and you can see that putting an unprepared and distracted Vick on the field this season is a disaster waiting to happen for the Falcons from a football standpoint.

So if you can't cut him for cap reasons and you can't play him for football reasons, what on earth do you do if you are the Falcons? The cold-hearted answer is that they have to suspend him and wait for a charge to stick to Vick in order to void his contract and save themselves from salary cap hell. Forget the "leave of absence" crap that is being floated around; Vick lied to both Arthur Blank and Roger Goodell, and that fact alone is enough for the Falcons to suspend Vick. If they don't want to suspend him, fine. Put him on the inactive list and leave him at home each week. Having Vick at games and even practices is going to lead to a media circus that will engulf the entire Falcons team. Blank must step in before that is allowed to happen.

Now for the second part of the Falcons' dilemma; what do they do at QB? The really sad thing is that the Falcons would have been totally fine if they had not chosen to trade Matt Schaub to the Texans. Now they find themselves with Joey Harrington and DJ Shockley as their QB alternatives in year 1 A.V. (After Vick) I for one, think that Harrington will be a fine place holder for a year or two. He really wasn't that bad last year in Miami, and the truth is that Atlanta has an extremely good running game even without Vick in the lineup. Warrick Dunn and Jerious Norwood are one of the better RB tandems in the league, and by leaning on them many of Harrington's deficiencies would be hidden.

The Falcons do have another option for this year, and his name is Daunte Culpepper . For some reason however, the Falcons have been giving signals that they are not interested in the free agent QB. I personally don't see that much downside in bringing in a former Pro Bowl QB on the cheap to compete with Harrington. Perhaps the Falcons have some misgivings about Culpepper's knee, but for whatever reason the Falcons seem to be against bringing in Culpepper.

So what about year 2 A.V. and beyond? The Falcons are actually in an extremely good position to rebound at the QB position. There was a reason that Joey Harrington was selected #3 overall; the man does have some talent. Between Harrington and Shockley the Falcons will at least be serviceable at the QB spot for the next two seasons. Neither Harrington or Shockley though, are the long term answer for the Falcons at QB. That man may well be one of the pair of extremely talented Louisville QBs (Read; Petrino Disciples) that will be available in the next two NFL Drafts. That is right, two. Everyone knows that Brian Brohm will be the top QB in next year's draft, but not everyone is aware that Brohm's backup Hunter Cantwell is also very highly regarded by NFL scouts. Mel Kiper Jr. even goes so far as ranking Cantwell as the #1 Jr. QB in the entire nation.

Now imagine this; Vick sits out this year one way or another, and Joey Harrington starts this season. Then the Falcons will have two drafts where they can try to draft a QB (Brohm or Cantwell) that is both extremely talented as well as very familiar with the offensive system of the Falcons' new coach. If the Falcons miss on both QBs, then they could finally go out and try to find someone in free agency. No matter what though, the future for Atlanta may not be quite as bleak as some people may think.

*

2007-07-23T11:39:00.000-05:00

As Barry Bonds approaches the all-time home run record many people have argued that his exploits are invalid due to the steroid speculation swirling around him, and as such his exploits should have an asterisk affixed to them.

Sadly, the news of the past few days has revealed that there is an even greater need for an asterisk in the world of sports;

2007 NBA Champions: San Antonio Spurs*

Don't get me wrong, the Spurs had no control over the actions of rogue ref Tim Donaghy. Their entire playoff run is however, tainted by the fact that Donaghy was one of the officials in the notoriously poorly officiated Game 3 of the Spurs-Suns series. For those of you that would like to believe that Donaghy did not have an effect on the game, suit yourselves. At least watch the video at the end of this post though, and see if you still hold the same opinion. The video evidence clearly shows Donaghy standing directly in front of a number of obvious Spurs fouls and blatantly ignoring them. The video also shows this foul mentioned by Bill Simmons in his excellent column on the Donaghy situation;

Other than the latest call in NBA history (a shooting foul for Manu Ginobili whistled three seconds after the play, when everyone was already running in the other direction)...

I'll save you the suspense; it was indeed Donaghy that made that particular call.

When the news about Donaghy first broke the initial thought that ran through my mind was "Please, please, please don't let it be a playoff game". As important as the NBA regular season is, there is a sort of insulated illegitimacy involved with a random game in the middle of February. Theoretically the outcome of that game being altered by a crooked ref could have some ultimate bearing on playoff seedings and by extension the path of the playoffs, but such ripples are far offset from the epicenter of the incident in question.

A playoff game though? In a tied series? Between arguably the two best teams remaining in the playoffs at that point? Other than a pivotal Finals game, the fact that Donaghy was involved with Game 3 of the Spurs-Suns series is as big of a nightmare as could have come out of this mess. The saddest part is that the Spurs have no fault in the fact that some hack ref gave them a helping hand in Game 3. (Again, if you still don't believe it just watch the video) The dark legacy of this scandal will always come back to that Game 3 though, along with two words; "What if?" What if the Spurs hadn't shot 9 more free throws than the Suns in a 7 point game? What if Amare Stoudemire had been able to play more than 21 minutes due to foul trouble? What if the Suns had been up 2-1 after Game 3 instead of down 2-1? Would the Amare suspension have mattered after Game 4 if the Suns were up 3-1 instead of tied 2-2? The questions are endless, but the root always comes back to the fact that the Donaghy scandal has forever tainted the 2007 NBA Playoffs. Who knows, had the Suns been given a fair shake in Game 3 maybe they would have gone on to win the title. Or maybe they would have failed to match up well against Carlos Boozer and the Jazz, and the Jazz may have gone on to win the title. Or perhaps the Cavs would have defeated a weary Phoenix squad. Or maybe it wouldn't have mattered at all, and the Spurs would have still won the title. The sad truth is that the Suns, the NBA, and basketball fans everywhere will never get the chance to truly know what would have happened. All we do know is one thing;

2007 NBA Champions: San Antonio Spurs*

(And here is the video I kept referencing)

A Move Most Odd Part II

2007-07-21T07:58:00.000-05:00

I thought that the most lopsided trade of the NBA off-season occurred last week when the San Antonio Spurs gave Jackie Butler and Luis Scola (A starting caliber PF) to the Rockets for a 2nd round draft pick and a player (Vassilis Spanoulis) that is never going to play in the NBA again.

Well, I was wrong.

The Phoenix Suns found a way to be even more charitable than the Spurs, as they executed the following trade with the Sonics:

"The Seattle SuperSonics acquired veteran forward Kurt Thomas and the Phoenix Suns' first-round draft choices in 2008 and 2010 on Friday in exchange for a conditional second-round draft choice.

Seattle also sent Phoenix its $8 million trade exception to complete the deal."

The reasoning of course, is that the Suns are trying to clear room so that they can keep the trio of Shawn Marion, Steve Nash, and Amare Stoudemire intact. That is a fine and good rationale in all reality. The way that the Suns are going about doing it however, is absolutely asinine. Lets start by looking at this trade. The Suns shipped two first rounders and an $8 million expiring contract for a conditional second round pick and an $8 million trade exception. The logic would be that getting rid of the first round picks gets rid of two guaranteed contracts down the line. The rest of the deal makes no sense however, as why on earth would a team that is looking to cut cap ever use an $8 million trade exception? The Suns won't use it, so the deal essentially breaks down as two first rounders and Kurt Thomas for a conditional second round pick.

Now, combine this with the fact that the Suns have sold two first round picks in the past two years for a combined $6 million in cash, and now we have a problem. That is four first round picks gone with only one on-court asset coming back to the Suns. Well, one asset if the conditional second round pick from the latest trade is ever triggered. What the Suns are doing right now is sacrificing their future to avoid the luxury tax. Look at it this way; could the Suns have traded each of those four first round picks for a second rounder and a little cash instead of the deals they made? If they had employed that strategy they could have at least had four players to stash in the D-League or Europe, and if Steve Kerr can evaluate talent at all at least one or two of those picks would likely pan out in time.

Here is the truth; these moves are setting the Suns up for disaster as soon as Steve Nash exits the stage. There will be no smooth transition, no minor dip in performance. The team will shatter. Do you really think Shawn Marion will stick around once Nash is gone? No way. Then the Suns will be left with a core of Leandro Barbosa, Stoudemire, and Boris Diaw (whose nearly $10 million a year contract is what is causing all this trouble in the first place). Too bad they won't have any young talent left to ease the transition. It'll all be playing in Seattle.

Tour De France Video Highlights

2007-07-19T09:01:00.000-05:00

I know you aren't watching the Tour De France. And I can't blame you; there are no American contenders, and there is yet another doping controversy. So just so you aren't totally left out, here are the video highlights from the Tour De France thus far. And by video highlights I mean crashes and Borat. Enjoy.

Hot Fan Showdown: Yanks vs. Sox

2007-07-19T07:29:00.000-05:00

As the Yankees and Red Sox prepare for a battle for the AL East title, a number of questions arise. Will the Yankees be able to improve their middle relief? Will Julio Lugo ever learn how to play baseball again? Can Roger Clemens hold up the rest of the season? Can Curt Schilling hold up the rest of the season? While these questions are all good and pertinent queries, I have a much better question for you; who has the hotter celeb fans, Yanks or Sox?

Red Sox:

C: Giselle

1B: Eliza Dushku

2B: Jennifer Garner

3B: Sarah Silverman

SS: Maria Menounos

LF: Shannon Elizabeth

CF: Rene Russo

RF: Amy Poehler

DH: Christie Brinkley

Yankees:

C: Nicole Kidman

1B: Jennifer Lopez

2B: Mariah Carey

3B: Britney Spears

SS: Sarah Jessica Parker

LF: Tea Leoni

CF: Sarah Michelle Gellar

RF: Kyli Ryan

DH: Marilyn Monroe

You Might Also Like:David Beckham Means Nothing
How To Salvage The Falcons
Donaghy Scandal Leaves Asterisk On Spurs Title

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Top 5 Free Agent Signings

2007-07-18T12:42:00.000-05:00

Now that the dust has almost completely settled on what ended up being a rather lackluster free agency period, now is the time to do every blogger's favorite thing; declare winners and losers. While I'll put off a full free agency analysis until I get back home from my current trip, here is a look at the top five signings of the free agency period;

5. Jacque Vaughn
No, that is not a typo. The fact that Vaughn makes this list is an indictment of the ridiculous amount of fiscal irresponsibility that was exhibited during the free agency period. Between teams bidding against themselves, overvaluing players, and making just plain stupid deals, the Spurs showed why they have won four championships in nine years. They knew they needed a backup PG, they knew Vaughn fit into their system, and they paid very little in order to get him. (2 years, $2.5 million) In the current NBA landscape, with so many teams languishing in salary cap hell, moves such as getting a solid backup PG for near the league minimum can be much better than throwing a max contract at a so so talent. (See; Lewis, Rashard)

4. Darko Milicic
This is not to say that Darko is going to be some sort of star in Memphis; he likely won't be. The Grizzlies did make a good signing with Milicic on a number of levels. First, they filled a need. Everyone in the NBA knew that Memphis was looking to find a big man to compliment Pau Gasol, and the Grizzlies went hard after both Anderson Varejao and Andres Nocioni. They were able to get Milicic, who in spite of all of the criticism levied against him is actually turning into a pretty serviceable 7 footer. So the Grizzlies filled a need, added a young talent, and most importantly were able to do it without breaking the bank. The Darko deal was for three years and somewhere between $18-$21 million. When you realize that Darko was originally seeking about $9 million a season, this deal looks that much better.

3. Grant Hill
This was a signing that was great for both sides. For the Suns, they were able to add a veteran leader who also filled a need (are you that crazy about Boris Diaw or Raja Bell?) for a low price. (2 years, $3.8 million) For Hill, going to the Suns gives him a chance to play for a championship, play in an exciting system, and to play a significant number of minutes at an age(34) where many teams would have wanted to put him out to pasture. The deal was a steal for the Suns, and adding Hill may well put them over the hump and into the Finals next season. Now, if they could just get rid of Marcus Banks...

2. Jamaal Magloire
When I first saw news of this signing my initial reaction was "Oooph". For those of you unfamiliar with what "Oooph" is, it's the sound that you make when you see something particularly nasty. A six foot blond walking down the street? "Oooph". Sean Taylor knocking a wide receiver head over heels? "Oooph". Coming home and seeing a big fat steak already sitting on the table? "Oooph". The prospect of the Nets starting Jason Kidd, Vince Carter, Richard Jefferson, Nenad Kristic, and Jamaal Magloire next season? "Oooph". That does not even take into account the fact that signing Magloire for one year and only $4 million is both cheap and low risk, and that signing Magloire also prevented them from throwing away money on Mikki Moore. This signing was ridiculously good.

1. Gerald Wallace
Did you see the contract that Rashard Lewis got from the Magic? Now imagine a player that is five years younger, plays the same position as Lewis, has an offensive game that is fast developing to match Lewis', is one of the top five defenders in the NBA, and is just generally better than Lewis in every single way other than perimeter shooting. Now imagine that you just signed him for half as much as the Magic signed Lewis. That is the kind of dream that the Charlotte Bobcats have been having ever since they signed Gerald Wallace to a six year, $57 million deal. Wallace is a star in the making, and if you have watched him at all in the past few years you know that he has been making quantum leaps in his game every single season. The Bobcats easily made the best signing of the year getting Wallace for the money they did.