Unlike the NFL twins, these two are the same person based solely on looks. I kinda enjoy doing these, so expect more in the future. Also, count on things to pick up around here this week, this whole flood thing has kept me busy this past week.
The Red Sox were sure glad to see Brandon Lyon again. Mike Lowell, Jason Bay, Chris Carter, and Ivan Ochoa went back to back to back to back off Lyon in the 6th inning of yesterdays spring training game. This is the Brandon Lyon that is supposed to be competing for the Tigers closer roll this season. How would you feel with Lyon coming in up 3? I'd say not to confident. I can see this guy being like Joe Borowski with the Indians, bring him in up 3 and hope he only gives up 2. How you tally 45 saves with an ERA over 5 is beyond me. I don't envision Lyon doing much better in the ERA category, and at 4.25 million per you'd expect better. The Twins signing Lyon could have been disastrous with their already ongoing bullpen problems, but instead the Tigers signed him which actually helps the Twins out.
This happening brings back some fond memories that nearly bring me to tears, when the Red Sox went off for 4 consecutive bombs against the Yankees' Chase Wright (Yes I realize the video is a video game reenactment, but the audio is the best part). I remember watching the game at my apartment and freaking out to my roommate who is a Yankees fan after just two home runs. I think I passed out after the third one, because I hardly remember Variteks bomb to cap it off.
I can hardly wait for this season to start, and with the spring flooding happening here in North Dakota, also comes baseball season. For anyone debating whether or not to get MLB Extra Innings? Do it, best choice I've made in a long time. The awesome games you'll get to see, the interesting plays and the fans in the stands make it all worth it.
So here's to the 2009 MLB Season and all the excitement just waiting to burst out!
The running for the NBA's Most Valuable Player is pretty tight right now. D-Wade, Lebron, and Kobe have all proven how valuable they are to their teams. But what about the players whose teams won't make it into postseason play? There are a bunch of teams that have been less than spectacular this year but have some amazing players. Only one of these players can be the Irrelevant MVP. Let's see our candidates.
Kevin Durant - Oklahoma City Thunder
Kevin Durant is one of the most exciting young players in the NBA right now. He has the ability to score from anywhere on the court and will only get better with time. He took over the Rookie/Sophomore game during All-Star Weekend with a 46 point performance and also won the H-O-R-S-E competition the next day. He's a player who could eventually be a real MVP.
Danny Granger - Indiana Pacers
Danny Granger is putting up good numbers this year. He's shown that he can be a great scorer from the inside and outside. He's also proven that he isn't afraid to go after the ball. In a game against the Celtics this year, he got his front teeth knocked out while going after a loose ball. A player this good definitely deserves to wear Antonio Davis's old number.
Chris Bosh - Toronto Raptors
Chris Bosh is a different kind of post player. He has some impressive moves in the paint and a good mid-range shot. He's a very long player who runs the floor well. He's also very good at giving people their weather forecast. He's fun to watch on the court and off.
Kevin Martin - Sacramento Kings
Kevin Martin is a great scorer. I think he's pretty underrated considering the numbers he puts up. The Kings don't have much going for them but Martin is a good player to build a team around.
Let me know who you think should win the Irrelevant MVP Award or if I missed someone that should be among these candidates. And don't say Walter Herrmann.
This was a very impressive play by Portland State's Jeremiah Dominguez, particularly when you take into account that he was apparently being sodomized by two men at the same time. This kid has exceptional focus.
I'm not sure which CBS talking head dropped this nugget of wisdom, but what I'm more concerned about is Gus Johnson sounding like he's about to fall asleep. My favorite play-by-play guy is apparently back on his medication, this is very upsetting to me. It might have something to do with this. At least we don't have to listen to the crazy ramblings of Billy Packer anymore.
Soccer is a sport that I've never really cared for. The main reason used to be because the field was too big and there was too much running. Now the main reason that I don't like soccer is because I don't want to be shot and killed.
During victory celebrations following a match on Saturday between the Shiite villages of Sinjar and Enana, a fan accidentally shot the victorious goalie to death, the police in Babil Province said Monday, according to a report in The New York Times. -- FOXSports.com--
The worst part about the story is that the goalie was killed by an off-duty police officer. This comes right after reports of a seperate incident where an Iraqi soccer player was shot dead by a fan while attempting a game tying kick. If Billy Cole were still alive, he would tell us that guns and sporting events don't go well together.
JP and Ben15 are on their way to Florida to watch the Red Sox and the Twins play in spring training this week. Now that they are gone, I can finally wear my Bryant Reeves jersey around the apartment without being harassed for it. Hopefully they will do a post or two while they are in Florida and let me know what I'm missing out on.
With everyone gone for spring break this week I am going to be bored out of my mind. I imagine that I will just spend most of my time repeating the Grizzlies starting lineup over and over like the kid in the video below. I like the way she tosses the card after she announces Darko (who, surprisingly, had a double double in a win over the Pistons today).
Or into the morning for that matter. It took 3 hours and 46 minutes to finish the longest game in Big East Tournament history and the second-longest game in Division-I history. Jonny Flynn played 67 minutes, a Syracuse record. 8 players fouled out. The two teams combined for 244 points, a Big East record. And my favorite statistic... Syracuse never had the lead in any overtime until the final one! They kept finding ways to tie it in the 5 other overtimes but never had the lead until the 6th overtime, which they held on to for the win.
And all of this could have been prevented if Eric "Chinstrap" Devendorf gets his "buzzer-beating" shot off a tenth of a second quicker. I know these boys must be exhausted, but that game was a hell of a lot of fun to watch, and is a perfect example of why I love Championship Week so much.
UConn goes on to wonder if they'll receive a number one seed in next week's March Madness opening round and Syracuse goes back and does it all over again against a scrappy West Virginia team. Could this be another Gerry McNamara-esque run for Syracuse? Maybe, but at least this year the Orange are guaranteed a spot in the tourney no matter what happens tonight.
And what the hell is the point of that black thing on Hasheem Thabeet's shoulder?
Why do Red Sox and Yankees fans think that Joe Mauer is going to be playing for them in 2011? There is no way the Twins would let Joe go. He's an icon in Minnesota and has been there his whole life. His favorite team is the Minnesota Twins and he has indicated that he doesn't want to play anywhere else.
There are some people who think that we should trade Joe, but they are obviously out of their minds. Twins fans know how good of a player Joe is and would poke their eyes out with a fork if they ever saw Joe in a different uniform. I just hope that the Twins give Joe the contract he deserves.
And if Joe leaves, who is going to play pogs with Morneau?
Yeah, doesn't that seem like a long time ago? This kid was the cream of the crop last fall, but his Sugar Bowl suspension pretty much started the snowball rolling downhill. When the combine started, he wasn't even sure he was going to work out. He even admitted he was out of shape and just began working out again the weekend of the combine. Why would he even admit that? He then said he was going to participate in the combine and then mysteriously didn't appear. At this point, a lot of NFL teams were questioning his work-ethic, fitness, and sanity.
Once he actually showed up, he then posted lackluster numbers and gave awesome interviews:
(Per SI.com) Smith reportedly dressed "inappropriately" to the visits and gave conflicting reasons for why he wouldn't work out. "Several" offensive line coaches tell Pauline that they want Smith removed from their teams' draft boards.
I wonder what he was wearing? Hopefully it was that ugly Ed Hardy crap...man I hate that stuff.
(Per NFL.com) Alabama OL Andre Smith benched 225 lbs. only 19 times at the Crimson Tide Pro Day Wednesday. Smith's long arms make benching more difficult, but this is certainly fewer reps than expected. Smith's reputation is as a punishing, powerful run blocker. We would've bet on something in the 25-30 range.
pfffft... come on Andre, who CAN'T bench 225 lbs 30 times? Actually, I think I just pulled a muscle typing that last sentence.
Alabama OL Andre Smith was "visibly overweight" at his Pro Day Wednesday, according to Profootballtalk.com. Terms like "not overly impressive," "rough," and "he bombed" are being used to describe Smith's effort.
Is he trying to lose money? When you dedicate your life to football and are projected as a top 5 pick, you figure it shouldn't be that hard to hit the gym and not make an ass out of yourself at the biggest job interview of your life. Just my two cents.
Jay Cutler must envision himself as something great the way he is acting. His situation with new head coach Josh McDaniel's has went from "bad to worse", which is completely unacceptable. This guy has done nothing, what is he whining about? He has not made the playoffs, has a losing career record, and has never had a passer rating over 90. He does have one thing going for him already though, he has already perfected the stupid Manning face. You all know exactly the one I'm talking about, the one where Manning throws a pick and he turns to the sideline and gives the face that says "but, but it wasn't my fault, Reggie ran a post route when clearly I said Red 52 ZX Go and gave the interlocking fingers gesture".
Now while I have never been a fan of the Broncos and actually enjoy their demise, I can't help but to mini-hope that they do OK. I'm talking like 8-8 and not making the playoffs, and that's only because McDaniel's is a former Patriot OC. I'm sure the nostalgia towards him will wear off after this year and I can go back to my full out Bronco hating ways.
Cutler becomes upset when he learns the Broncos were making a play for Matt Cassel, and planned on sending him to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Now lets give a little comparison. What did Matt Cassel do last year? Oh just filled in for the best QB in the league while guiding the team to an 11-5 record that should have been good enough to make the playoffs if it wasn't for Brett Favre just playing like a kid again. Cassel also finished with a higher passer rating then Cutler has ever had, he is better scrambler than Cutler and is only going to get better. Finally Cassel is a team guy. He has patiently waited his turn to get his shot, he rode the pine until some opportunity came along and he jumped all over it. Cassel was willing to go back to his position as backup (yes obviously for a huge pay increase), but how many people would say that? Even if he didn't mean it, at least he's got the common sense to sound like a good guy. So Cutler I think it's time to put your ego behind you and prove why you should be the man in Denver.
PS. Julio Lugomust have read my blog about him, because of course he decides to start hitting to the clip of .444. Granted its Spring Training, but apparently he despises me as much as I do him...
The Dutch swapped their clogs for cleats and a funny thing happened on the way to Round 2 of the World Baseball Classic...Team Nederland beat the heavily-favored Dominican Republic twice...TWICE! This is easily the biggest sports upset of the year thus far, but will nonetheless be very under appreciated. Let me help you to appreciate it:
Let's take a look at some comparisons between the two national teams. --Current MLB Players-- Dominican Republic: 23 The Netherlands: 2
You know who one of the 2 Dutch players are? None other than Sir Sidney Ponson, who recorded the W in the first win over Dominicana. 4 of the Dominican MLB players were all stars last year and I'll give you one guess how many Dutch players were all stars last season. If you said anything higher than zero, please... just leave. With a talent pool this deep, there's no reason the Dominicans should've lost once, or twice for that matter, to the Dutch.
--Career MLB Wins-- Dominicana:518 Nederland:95
Pretty one-sided statistic as it is, but watch what happens when you take away Sidney Ponson's win total:
Nederland: 5
Yep.
Clearly, the Dutch's success can be attributed to the sage wisdom of pitching coach Bert Blyleven.
--Career MLB Homers--
Dominican Republic: 1,801 Netherlands: 82
and my personal favorite:
--2008 MLB Salaries--
DOM: $83.4 million NED: $0.4 million
Dominicana, you just got served in epic fashion by a country more famous for clog dancing and windmill cleaning than for anything even resembling baseball. This is comparable to Team U.S.A.'s olympic basketball struggles (post dream-team, pre redeem-team). Oh well, maybe this will give Edinson Volquez more time to clean his guns.
But enough making fun of the Dominicans for their failures, I don't want to take anything away from what the Dutch did. They came to play, and now they'll try to keep the dream alive in round 2. I couldn't imagine what would happen if the Dutch somehow found their way in the championship game. Bud Selig would be wise to cancel future World Baseball Classics, because there would be no topping that.
Good luck Netherlands..because as they say: Lekker is slechts een vinger lang!
Last night, North Dakota State defeated Oakland in the Summit League Championhip. They also did something that hasn't been done in about 40 years: lock up a spot in the NCAA Tournament in their first year of eligibility (the last team was Long Beach St. in the 70s if you're curious). NDSU just recently made the jump from D-2 to D-1 and has made plenty of noise since doing so. Their first act was nearly defeating Minnesota in a football game in the Metrodome, which was loaded with a surprising amount of Bison fans. The next year, NDSU avenged this loss and defeated the Gophers. The noise didn't stop with the football team, NDSU's basketball team upset a ranked Wisconsin team as well as a ranked Marquette team. It was clear they were ready to compete at the Division 1 level, they just had to wait 4 years to be postseason eligible because of NCAA rules. Well they finally got their shot and wasted no time on their path to March Madness.
In a game which NDSU looked out of sync the entire first half and even the beginning of the second half, the Bison turned it up on Oakland and the Grizzlies couldn't keep up. Ben Woodside sealed the deal with a clutch jumper, with about 3 seconds left Oakland had enough time to get a shot off to win it and I gotta admit..I thought it was going in. Thankfully it clanked off the rim and the Bison secured their first trip to the Big Dance in their first year of eligibility. Maybe they'll be wearing glass slippers soon too? Don't be surprised if they make some noise in the tourney, as they've shown they can compete with the big boys.
In a state that mostly cares about hockey and football, NDSU has done a great job of making basketball relevant. Phil Jackson's from North Dakota and still no one cared about basketball; hopefully that can begin to change. If NDSU can continue the winning tradition and with UND transitioning to D-1, North Dakota sports may begin receiving more national attention, though I would argue that UND's Fighting Sioux hockey team has long been nationally relevant and one of the nation's powerhouses.
I wish NDSU all the luck in the world and hope they make a run for it all next week.
uhh.. careful there guys, that's not an injury anyone wants right now.
So D-Wade's been on a tear lately, there's no denying that the kid's got skill. I'm even hearing MVP talk, which really is a moot point. There are only two words that should be in the same sentence as NBA MVP and that's "Kobe" and "LeBron."
I'm sorry but I'll never be able to take Dwyane Wade seriously, not after the wheelchair thing. How pathetic does he look there? Okay, I would probably cry too...for things much less painful, but that's beside the point. Why does he need to be carted off in a wheelchair for a shoulder injury? And the towel over his head.. is he a 90 year old woman being brought to her monthly cholesterol screening?
The wheelchair incident aside...there's still the issue of him being linked to former whale Star Jones. Fat or not fat, the woman's face looks like the Scream mask. I gotta think that being an NBA player in Miami with a title would be enough to pull hotter chicks than Star freaking Jones.
The band-aid thing was a little ridiculous too, I mean come on, if you're ripping off styles from Nelly then you're in serious need of an update.
I could go on about his "alleged" STDs and weed/sex parties, but really, who doesn't love STDs and weed/sex parties?
The whole point of this post is I'm bitter that the Pistons drafted Darko instead of Wade. The end.
Chris "Birdman" Andersen shows no mercy to anyone and will not hesitate to lay waste to your entire village. One example was caught on TNT Thursday night, be warned...this video is not for the faint of heart.
Terrell Brandon is a 5 foot 11 inch guard from the University of Oregon and was selected 11th overall in the 1991 NBA Draft by the Cleveland "wow, we wear a shitload of throwback jerseys" Cavaliers.
Once upon a time, he was labeled as thee best point guard in the NBA during the 1996-1997 season. (Here's all the proof you need)
So, how does one receive this "Best Point Guard in the NBA" status? Well, its pretty easy. First of all, don't even crack the top 20 in scoring and then finish 19th in assists per game and bam! you're the best point guard in the NBA. Yep, Terrell Brandon was clearly better than John Stockton, who had led the league in assists for the 9 straight seasons before this article and Gary Payton who at the time of this time was averaging 20 ppg and 7.5 assists, while also winning Defensive Player of Year Awards (apparently TB doesn't play defense).
I'm sure Terrell Brandon was a dandy little ball player. I watched him play a few years for the Timberwolves and thought (along with two-headed low-post monster of Dean Garrett and RashoNesterovic) he was a nice compliment to KG during the "Oh shit we are never going to get out of the first round playoffs" era.
After all that useless garbage, I realized that the Orlando Magic took Brian Williams, who later became none other than Bison Dele, with the 10th pick in 91' Draft right before TB. Bison Dele went on to have a BLAH career with 5 different teams and then was supposedly murdered by his brother. Also, the Pistons thought they should pay him a shitload of money to be funny. Meanwhile, the Orlando Magic could have had the best point guard ever created, Terrell Brandon. How could Orlando ever recover from such a draft day screw up like that? Well, in case you haven't heard they currently have the best center in the NBA.
In a move that seems surprising right away, but really isn't, the Dallas Cowboys severed their ties with the Terrell Owens sideshow. After laying waste to San Francisco and Philadelphia's respective locker rooms, he brought his act to the one NFL team that will take pretty much anyone...the Dallas Cowboys (Now with more convicted felons than the Cincinnati Bengals!). The Cowboys recent struggles have been magnified by the constant distractions involving Jessica Simpson, tropical vacations, Wade Phillips' unflattering wardrobe choices, scrip clubs, and pretty much everything T.O. does. This is a team that hasn't even won a playoff game since 1996 and they just cut their best offensive player. This looks bad on both parts...the Cowboys need Owens' productivity and still cut him. Of all teams, you'd think Owens could find a way to not piss everyone off in Dallas. Is there anywhere this guy can play without completely imploding the franchise?
So what now? He's obviously going to play somewhere next year; the man's an ass but he can still be a huge offensive benefit to someone out there.
Where does he go?
Minnesota? After losing out on Houshmandzadeh, it would make sense for the Vikings to at least try to bring Owens in. Even if the starting quarterback appears to be the Rosencopter, defenses would still have to respect the Vikings' passing game a lot more which would in turn open up the run game. And with Adrian Peterson, that is a truly scary thing. On the other hand, Brad Childress was T.O.'s offensive coordinator in Philly so he knows firsthand what he would be getting, that could discourage any kind of a deal. Also, Owens himself might not feel comfortable with the quarterback situation in Minny.
Tennessee? The Titans have needed a big-play receiver since...well, forever. They have a stable quarterback situation with aspiring country music sensation Kerry Collins. Along with a solid run-game and defense, this would be a championship caliber team.
New Orleans? Drew Brees slinging to T.O. would just be sick. That team would have potential of being the new "Greatest Show on Turf."
New York Giants? After losing Plaxico to some poor strip club etiquette, the Giants are in need of a replacement. Would they be able to handle the Owens Traveling Circus though? That team pretty much spiraled out of control after Plax pulled a Cheddar Bob.
New England? Brady. Moss. Owens. Really nothing else has to be said. How frustrating would it be to opposing defenses to try and stop that?! The Patriots have come out of nowhere before to sign the marquee player, but I don't know if the entire northeast could support the egos of both Terrell Owens and Randy Moss.
What is apparent is that T.O. will find a new home somewhere. There will always be a team willing to bring in the popcorn man and give him a shot, even though he has never quite meshed with a team and probably never will. The man's career will be defined as having an immense amount of talent, but an ego that always prevented him from getting a ring.
The Grizzlies ended their 8 game losing streak tonight by beating the Clippers in L.A., 118-95. Rudy Gay was dominant in the second half and finished with 35 points. I shouldn't be excited about beating the Clippers but when wins are few and far between you have to take what you can get.
I admittedly do not follow collegehumor.com very close, but apparently these two guys prank each other back and forth...and I don't mean peanut butter under the door handle type pranks...these are epic pranks and they constantly try to one-up each other. Now whether some of this is staged or real is debatable...but I like to believe that it's legit, and I can't wait to see the response.
Baseball season is upon us. Baseball's Opening Day is a little over a month away and this year's baseball video games were released today. Being the nerd that I am, I went and got my copy of MLB 09: The Show for PS3 last night at midnight. I was the only person at Gamestop that wasn't there to pick up the new Halo Wars game. This makes me feel much less nerdy. Now that I have MLB 09: The Show, I can get the Twins to the World Series and get Morneau another MVP award. Hopefully this same scenario will play itself out in real life. I have my work cut out for me so I'm going to continue playing video games the rest of the night while directing my attention to the Grizzlies/Lakers game every once in while (which, going into halftime, is a 5 point game).
Now let me preface this by saying this isn't a race thing... I also think that Brian Scalabrine and Matt Bonner are the same person. The same can be said for Mike Tomlin and Omar Epps...as well as Nick Nolte and Gary Busey. Besides, they don't even really look much alike...but don't let that fool you.
They were both born in Florida, both played for Florida colleges (Miami and Florida State), both were drafted by the New York Jets ( a year apart), and neither are really that consistent, but they can both be considered dependable. Coles is listed as 5'11" and Moss is listed as 5'10". Coles has 44 career TDs and Moss has 43. They both played for the Jets at the same time! I'm willing to bet that Vinny Testaverde wasn't even sure which one he was throwing to at times.
Coles had a brief stint with the Washington Redskins for a couple years and then...my favorite part... HE WAS TRADED BACK TO THE JETS FOR SANTANA MOSS!
Moss Coles was just cut by the Jets...even though the Skins just broke the bank (that never happens!) on Albert Haynesworth... here's to hoping that Laveranues and Santana are reunited once more so that Jason Campbell's head explodes.
Most people think they can make millions on sports betting. In fact I was one of them, I was pretty positive that I could accurately predict games well enough to where I could make money off sports! Seemed easy! Well luckily there is this website called centsports.com, it's a sports betting site that is supported entirely by ads. Including your money to bet with! Granted you start out with 10 cents, but that's ten cents you didn't have yesterday. So basically you spend your entire week creeping your way up to a dollar or eventually catching a break and nailing a 5 game parlay to get a little bank roll going, only to lose it all on a mortal lock of the century like Köln vs ArminiaBielefeld in the Germany Bundesliga 1 league (do you know what that is? yeah neither do I, but it's fun to bet on). So while I'm probably never going to make a cent off this website, it settles my urge for sports betting and also keeps me into some sports I don't watch, or teams I don't pay close attention to.
Let it be known though, that some people do cash out a couple hundred bucks off this website! I've had my own account up to 15$ once only to lose a good chunk on the stupid Vikings beating the Giants in a meaningless game with a meaningless 50 yard field goal as time expired. So I encourage you to check it out and try your hand at making your millions from 10 cents.
So I figured this would be a good idea for a series posts each of us can make. Explaining why we follow the teams we do and detailing every heartbreaking moment along the way.
People ask me "why the hell do you like the Seahawks? That makes no sense." No, it doesn't really, but I'll try to make some sense of it.
Here's the short answer:
A couple generations back, most of my family resided in Washington state and followed the sports teams pretty heavily (Huskies, Mariners, Seahawks, Sonics, etc.) Well it was my grandfather that got me hooked on the Seabags, and I'm glad that none of the other teams stuck with me because Seattle had arguably the worst sports year of any city this year...that kind of failure would probably have led to me being on suicide watch. My real teams didn't fare much better, but things are looking up.
Things are looking way up today for the Seahawks with T.J. Houshmandzadeh signing a 5-year deal. This is just what we needed, a proven veteran receiver to come in and be an explosive and reliable target for Matt Hasselbeck. We probably won't take a gamble on Crabtree now with the first pick, though it would still be tempting. I would love to see us draft Kenny Britt (Rutgers) or Darrius Heyward-Bey (Maryland). Our receiving situation was dreadful last year... you know you're in trouble when you're signing Koren Robinson and trading for Keary Colbert.
Now with Houshamizilli and (hopefully) a young talented receiver in the draft, our passing game can get back to the way it was our Super Bowl year. The defense had a dismal year, but I'm confident they can get back into form as well. I just wish our running game was a little more stable. I never was a big fan of signing Julius Jones or T.J. Duckett especially since we would've been just fine with Maurice Morris and Leonard Weaver, but them's the breaks sometimes. MoMo is off to Detroit now and Weaver may very well be out the door as well. Oh well, I would love to see more of Owen "The Runaway Beer Truck" Schmitt anyways.
I didn't start religiously following the Seahawks until the 99-2000 season. Back then we were still in the AFC West and our biggest rivals were the Jokeland Raiders. Around that time, the biggest story with the team was that we had the longest playoff-victory drought of any active team in the NFL. That drought continued through to the year of the infamous "we want the ball and we're gonna score" line. Then came the year we lost to the freaking Rams THREE TIMES IN ONE SEASON!!! I honestly thought I would go my entire life without seeing the Hawks win one stupid playoff game. Then came the magical year of 2005. What a great year...record setting MVP Shaun Alexander had himself a year. We locked up the #1 seed, beat the Redskins, beat the Panthers, and finally got that damn monkey off our back. Oh yeah and we went on to our first Super Bowl only to lose to the refs... I mean the Steelers (DID YOU KNOW JEROME BETTIS IS FROM DETROIT?!?!? ONE FOR THE THUMB!!!!!!11111111111). I could type about how bad that officiating was until I get carpal tunnel, but what's the point?
Outlook for next season:
Best Case Scenario:
All of the keyplayers stay healthy, Hasselbeck and the Hawks passing attack torch defenses and Houshyomamma has another pro bowl year. The defense goes back to their top-10 form and stuff the run while not getting burned for big passing plays. We win the NFC West and march all the way to Miami for Super Bowl XLIV and beat the Pittsburgh Steelers 75-3 (yes I will always be bitter about that Super Bowl).
Worst Case Scenario:
Um.. can it get much worse than last year? Wait...Don't answer that...
We get stricken with more injuries, Seneca Wallace has to start again, Houshbag becomes yet another Seahawk WR that never lives up to his expectations.. (See: Burleson, Nate and Branch, Deion). The Cardinals win the NFC West again while sweeping the Seahawks, and the Hawks end up with another top-10 pick...but not the number 1 pick, more like 8, 9, or 10th. Jim Mora Jr. goes off on a "PLAYOFFS?!?!'"-esque rant a la his father.
What Will Probably Happen:
We compete for the crown in the division that we've owned this decade. The Rams and 49ers actually show signs of life while the Cardinals come back down to earth and suddenly the NFC West is one of the more competitive divisions. I'm gonna predict that Seattle wins the division (unbiased!) at 10-6..wins their home playoff game and loses in the 2nd round. Keep in mind this is ridiculously early to be making any kind of plausible prediction but that's what the offseason is all about...making ridiculous predictions that eventually don't come true...and then deleting them later so they can't be used against you.
I'm constantly on YouTube watching mixes that people have put together and I found this Chris Bosh mix that I had to post. He might only be my second favorite Toronto Raptor (Jason Kapono is my favorite) but the guy has some mad skills.
The answer? NONE. Julio Lugo is a terrible baseball person. I don't even want to call him a player, because he does nothing to prove that he actually "plays". I think the Red Sox need to explore all options on getting rid of this guy, weather it be trading for a couple of low level prospects or even trading him for a bucket of used BP baseballs, I think it's all worth it. The guy plain and simply cannot hit. This is a normal look at Lugo's stat line.
AB R H BI E Lugo 4 0 0 0 2
Although more than likely he gave the opposing teams SS some good ground ball practice. I'm pretty sure he grounds out to the left side more than anyone in history. It's like clockwork, if he's up soft grounder to the SS, if someones on base chalk up the double play. The one time I decide to point this out to my friends, what do you think my main man Lugo does? He hits a ball that should have been a pop up to the catcher that some how drifts over the monster. The wind must have been gusting out at about 40 mph.
I really have a dislike for Julio Lugo. I've never not liked a single Sox player (all is fair game if they leave), except for Lugo. This guy gets payed 9M+ to be one of the worst at his position. To put that number into perspective, it would take me approximately 5.3 lifetimes to make what this guy makes one season. Sometimes life just isn't fair. So all I ask of the Red Sox is to please move this guy, someway, somehow. Is Danny Almonte available?
