Archive for November, 2010

In Case You’re Bored…

November 30th, 2010 by Christian | Comments Off on In Case You’re Bored… | Filed in General

DeSean The Diva?

November 29th, 2010 by Christian | 9 Comments | Filed in Eagles, General, NFL, Sports

Be A Teammate, Not A Diva!

Reports are that DeSean Jackson was sitting in the locker room after the loss to the Bears with towel over his head, sulking, not talking to reporters.

Come on dude, are you kidding me?  You’re gonna start that sh!t now?  Acting like a baby – another spoiled, ungrateful star athlete – after a little over a season of pretty good ball?  Give me a break.  And while you’re at it, give yourself a break.  Do NOT fall into the easy trap of the T.O’s and Chad Ochostinko’s of the world.  Egotism is boring and ugly.  And it ruins careers.  Allen Iverson ring a bell?

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DeSean, you are not bigger than the team or the game. You’re a good receiver, with blazing speed who can be an electrifying player at times.  But, let’s not get carried away.  You’re no Jerry Rice.

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Hot Stove Breakdown Part 2

November 29th, 2010 by Johnny G | 1 Comment | Filed in Baseball, General

After another week in the off-season hot stove, we have two more major deals to breakdown. Victor Martinez gets a five year deal worth approximately $50 million to leave Boston for Detroit and Aubrey Huff receives a 2 year deal with a vesting option for a third season at $22 million.

Victor Martinez is a fine offensive catcher that would be an extremely valuable piece to a team if he had the ability to play even league average defense behind the plate, unfortunately he can‘t. This deal has two ways it could go, and both have major issues to them. The Tigers could force Martinez behind the plate and deal with his defensive shortcomings, which would cause major issues regarding production or they could use him to catch a couple of times a week while making him their 1b/DH when he’s not catching. I probably don’t have to explain to you why option one is an issue, but option two would seem fairly reasonable to most fans. The problem with making Victor Martinez your full-time 1B/DH is that it saps the entire value out of him as a player. Martinez is a tremendous offensive catcher but when you put him over at First Base, he’s a pretty mediocre type run-producer. He blends in with the rest and is somewhere in the middle of the pack as far as production for a first basemen is concerned. To put it into perspective, Martinez’ OPS when compared to first basemen around the league would have ranked 18th, just ahead of Jack Cust, who by the way is a candidate to be non-tendered by the A’s.

This is the second questionable move by Dave Dombrowski this off-season, as he already committed 3 years and 15+ million to a middle-reliever in Joaquin Benoit. The odds on Victor Martinez providing enough production to call this contract reasonable are rather slim, and at the rate Dombrowski is giving away contracts to aging veterans, I have serious concerns for the long-term future of the Detroit Tigers.

Aubrey Huff is reaping the benefits of a commonly made mistake by many GM’s in recent memory, over-paying for a player who got hot for you en route to a World Championship. Don’t get me wrong though, this deal is not a franchise set-back or anything of that nature, I just wouldn’t have made the move. Huff is a defensive liability at whatever position he is going to play and he’s a prime candidate for a regression. The overall length of this deal isn’t all that long and the money being exchanged isn’t eye popping but the Giant’s best hitting prospect in the minors, Brandon Belt, is a First Basemen. It makes you wonder about the long-term plans for Belt and Huff. If the plan is for Huff to spend a significant portion of time in the outfield, this deal is worse than expected.

As I was taking a break from my all-nighter of Craps in Atlantic City, I was having breakfast with a friend and the topic of off-season moves came up. It finally hit me, the entire free-agency period is full of over-paying aging veterans. That’s just the nature of the business and why building through the draft and your farm system is so important. I’m going to try to look at these deals in the context of the team’s particular situation and not just in a vacuum but I have trouble getting away from the “value” each player represents. Basically what I’m trying to say is, if you’re going to be the top bidder on a particular free agent, you probably are going to over-pay. Unless you’re going to pick guys up off the scrap heap as the Giants did last year with Huff, the free agent market is not the best tool to use for filling out your roster.

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Fatso Andy Reid Dresses as Santa; Eagles Grant Bears Early Christmas Gift

November 28th, 2010 by Schmitty | Comments Off on Fatso Andy Reid Dresses as Santa; Eagles Grant Bears Early Christmas Gift | Filed in Eagles, Football, General
Friemds?

Friends?

The Philadelphia Eagles carried over bad habits from the Giants game. These included horrific dropped touchdown passes, sloppy nightmare red zone efforts, pathetic arm tackling and even worse play calling and coaching by the fat man Andy Reid today!

Last week the Eagles survived against a good Giant team at home to win. This Sunday they dug too much of a hole to climb out of against a good Bear team. I still don’t think that highly of the Bears after their performance today. Yes, Hester, Peppers, Urlacher, Suggs and sometimes Cutler are pretty darn good players. But the Eagles  forgetting  how to tackle, turned Bear dink and dunk plays into game breaking long plays that was hard to watch as an Eagle fan!

The offense better practice the red zone this week catching TDs and the defense better practice wrapping tacklers, before the Texans come to town.

Between overthrows, tipped interceptions, dropped TD passes and lackluster play inside the (redzone)the 20 and especially insude the damn 10 yard line fields goals don’t win games! Luckily for us the Texans super hero and all world receiver (Johnson) will probably be suspended for protraying Rocky Balboa against the Titans!

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Go Easy on the Kool-Aid

November 27th, 2010 by Christian | 1 Comment | Filed in General

Belichick, Others Lurking

Yes, MAYBE I was wrong about Vick.  ‘Maybe’ being the operative word.

 1.  Don’t drink the Kool-Aid just yet. What happens if they get blown out in their first playoff game, and Vick throws 3 INTs? Will you all still think Vick is so great?  Philly fans fall head over heels in love after the first date. It’s ridiculous.  It’s only been five regular season games, for crying out loud!  Let’s not compare him to Montana just yet.  

2.  Think Sean Payton, Bill Belichick, Mike McCarthy, et al, don’t have a gameplan to shut Vick down?  And Andy Reid hasn’t exactly distinguished himself in big games either.

Let’s see what happens come playoff time.

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Okay, Maybe I Was Wrong About Vick

November 27th, 2010 by Christian | 1 Comment | Filed in General

The Right Choice

A few weeks ago, I made my argument AGAINST Andy Reid choosing Michael Vick as the starting QB over Kevin Kolb.  I’ll admit that so far, it looks like Reid made the right decision.  Vick’s numbers to date are awesome:

Wins: 5
Losses: 0
TDs: 16 (11 Passing, 5 Rushing)
INTs: 0
Passing Yards: 1,608
Completion %: 62.8
Passer Rating: 108.7 (Ranked 1st in NFL)

In addition to these nearly flawless stats is the electrifying manner in which he plays the game.  At any moment it seems like the Eagles could score a touchdown.  And that’s because they can.

Last week, against the Giants top ranked defense, Vick  was held in check for most of the game and NY actually took the lead in the fourth quarter, 17-16.  BUT that was after Jason Avant had dropped a touchdown right in his arms, and Vick overthrew a wide open DeSean Jackson for another missed TD.  With those two scores, the Eagles should have had a comfy 27-17 lead instead of trailing by a point.  Nonetheless, they came back to win the game, and push Vick’s winning streak to 5-0 in games he’s started and finished.

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A Month Later Still Angry and Still Seeing Red! (Phillies Red).

November 26th, 2010 by Schmitty | 7 Comments | Filed in Baseball, General, Phillies

It has been over a full month since the Philadelphia Phillies completely forgot how to hit, run and field in the NLCS.

Bad signs were present all throughout the entire 2010 season. The incredible pitching masked the lackluster, untimely hitting, aloof base running and inconsistent fielding.

At Least This Picture Still Makes Me Happy!

Maybe we as Phils fans should have seen this coming. I am not taking anything away from the Giants and their terrific starting four rotation. But they may be the worst starting eight and total 25 man roster to win a World series since the 1988 Los Angeles Dodgers.

There is a reason they call the MLB playoffs a second season. After a grueling 162 games which Philadelphia won more games than any other team in baseball, the playoffs take on a whole new meaning and dimension. In a sense, baseball is more like the NHL, where if you get in, ANY team can win. Rarely does the best record in the regular season ensure a title.

This brings me back to the fact we as Phils fans can throw tomatoes at the Phils starting 8 for leaving their bats home practically all year as well as forgetting how to run the bases and attempt to field routine balls.

I dont want to hear how the “Freak” out-pitched Hallady in Game 1 or Oswalt was out-pitched in Game 6 by Sanchez!  The Phils would have advanced in 6 games, even without hitting, if Ibanez (doesn’t jump) and catches a routine deep fly ball off the bat of Pat Burell – that was wrongly called a double.  Result: Halladay and Phils 3 and Lincicum and Giants 2 in Game 1.

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