it is time to preview the baseball season..

This baseball season is less than one week away and I am very excited. All of the talk surrounds 5 teams positively and 3 teams negatively. The positive 5 are the Yankees, Phillies, Cardinal, Red Sox, and Brewers. These teams have tons of talent and have the best shot at contending for a title. The three negative teams may surprise some but their fans understand. They are the Mets, Cubs, and Angels. The Mets are on this list because they start the season minus key players and the pitchers from last season that were hurt have not come back to for so far in the spring. The Cubs have more talent than the Brewers and the Cards and because of internal strife, most people feel that that they won't do much this season. The Angels got rid of three very important cogs to their recent domination in the off-season. They also got rid of players last season and got older instead of better. They have lost Lackey, Escobar, Vlad, Kotchman, and K-rod over the last two seasons. Hard to replace these guys... Today i will start with the previews of both western divisions and you will see why they are not on the big 5 list.
The National League West has the most questions of any of the divisions in baseball this year. You have four teams that have more players injured or in new places that you need a thomas guide to find where they are playing. The best team in the division is the Dodgers. The Dodgers have a great nucleus of players that have been together since the minor leagues. Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier, Russell Martin and James Loney have been playing together it seems forever. If Manny comes back and play like we all know he can the Dodgers will be tough to be. The Pitching is the weakness and if Vincente Padilla is your opening day starter, you got trouble. He has a world of talent but he loses focus too easily. The bullpen is solid but the starting pitching is what will either make them or break them.
The San Francisco Giants have two problems. They play way too many close games and they do not score a lot of runs. They can flat out pitch. Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain are beasts but the rest of the staff is old and unproven. Barry Zito has not delivered. Their bullpen last year was overused and this year I don't not see anything changing.
The Colorado Rockies have great young starting pitching and very little else. They have lost quality players but can stay in games with the pitching of Cook and De Los Santos. Todd Helton is continuing his march towards 3000 hits so he and Troy Tulo.. have to lead this team towards a title. They have a lot of promise in their outfield. This team always seems to suffer a bad injury and then they are done for a while, then they get hot and contend for the remainder of the season. Should be fun...
The Arizona Diamondbacks might be the scariest team in this division. If Brandon Webb is back to form and Edwin Jackson and Dan Haren pitch like they can, this team will be in every game. They have a team of gamers!!! They will grind out victories and if you are not careful one day you look up and they are in the playoffs. They need big years from Conner Jackson, Scott Drew and others. They are a year away.
The Padres have to pray and take advantage of getting the number 1 0r 2 pick in the draft and rebuild. The built this beautiful stadium and have one great player in Adrian Gonzales and the rest should be in the minor leagues. Good luck Padre fans. I don't have a clue what to say about you.
In the American League west, offense will reign supreme, despite the Mariners deep pitching staff. The Angels may have lost a lot of talent and that has evened the playing field, but they still have more than the rest of the division. The pitchers Weaver and Saunders can match up with anyone. Adding Kazmir last season gives them an extra number 1 arm.. He needs to stay healthy. The offense is led by Torii Hunter and Bobby Abreu. The stud is Kendry Morales. If he puts up numbers like he did last season, the angels will be fine. The bullpen gets Scot Shields back and Brian Fuentes is awesome. They will be challenged but they will some how get it done. I just don't understand the moves they have made. I know their farm system is good so I guess they are expecting Howie Kendrick to be a star. We shall see..
The Seattle Mariners have Cliff Lee and King Felix Hernandez. They will be a pain to every team they face. They have Ichiro who can still rake, but have a lot of young players trying to find their way. I want to see if Griffey has something left in his bat.Chone Figgins leaves the Angels and joins this team. Milton Bradley yikes..
The Texas Rangers improved their pitching last year and look forward to being better this year. They added Vlad and with him, Nelson Cruz, Michael Young, Ian Kinsler, and Josh Hamilton, they may strike out a bunch but when put the ball in play, look out. They are going to be a nightmare to pitch to. Bring your abacus and your best summer hat to watch them play...
The Oakland A's only added CoCo Crisp to their team this off season. nuff said..
My predictions:
Dodgers Angels
Giants Rangers
Rockies Mariners
Diamondbacks A's
Padres

Congrats to Joe Mauer

Congrats to Joe Mauer!!! You have made an entire state very happy and made other people very confused. You are a Minnesotan and you are going be there for life. The Twins are known for having players for life. Kirby Puckett, Kent Hrbek, Tony Oliva, just to name a few. Roy Smalley and Butch Wynegar were there for a bunch years before they became Yankees. The Twins have won the World Series twice in my lifetime so the opportunity to win there is possible. They have Justin Morneau and a rejuvenated Francisco Liriano. They have young talent in the outfield, and despite losing Joe Nathan for the season, I think their bullpen is solid. But come on Joe, you could have really broke the bank if he had become a free agent. He could have been the first 300 million baseball player. The Mets and Yankees would have broken the bank to pay him. The Red Sox and Angels would have as well. Plus he would have a greater chance of winning a championship with those teams than he will with the Twins. I know money isn't everything but winning is and the Twins have a lot of holes that need to be filled. Orlando Hudson is a great player but he is in his 30's and I wonder how healthy he can be for a season. Last year with the Dodgers he was great in the first half of the season but really struggled in the second half. They need him to just hold the fort because they have some minor league players ready to jump in. I applaud Joe Mauer for his loyalty but in this day and age of sports players need to understand that that they need to get paid because get voided or players get released. Plus there is a strike looming and players need to understand that the owners are not going to budge on their demands.
I saw the other day that Sports Illustrated was talking about the 100 million dollar baseball players in the history of the game. They had Mike Hampton, Kevin Brown, Carlos Beltran on the list. In fact most of the list consisted of Yankees or former Yankees, a few former Mets and for some strange reason, the Colorado Rockies have players on the list. The funny thing about the list is that had the Yankees not won the title last year, this list would have exposed that being a 100 million dollar type talent is not a guarantee for a title. Manny, Pujols, Jeter, may all have rings, but Giambi given a ton of money and won nothing with the "bombers". Griffey did not win when he could have broken the bank and gave the Reds a home town discount. Todd Helton may be the greatest Rockie to ever live but one world series appearance is not enough. Didn't the Angels sign Vlad for over 100 million too? He got one ring so I guess that was okay. In other words teams win titles. The Marlins won the series with tiny payrolls. So in conclusion, I root for you Joe Mauer because of your loyalty, but you are never going to bring a title to the Twin Cities. Justin Morneau will be a Met or Red Sox in the next two years and then where will the Twins be. It is a Yankees universe and you better spend more money if you want to be in that constellation...

i usually pride myself on being right

I usually pride myself on being the smartest guy in the room when it comes to sports. I speak with such conviction and confidence and I am usually pretty persuasive. After watching the NCAA tournament games this weekend I find myself keeping very quiet because i cannot comprehend what happened. How does Georgetown lose to Ohio. Kansas and Villanova lose their games to lesser opponents respectively. How does Xavier every year beat a team that they have no business matching up with. I picked Cornell go to the Sweet 16 and get beaten by Kentucky. I have Kentucky winning the entire thing so I am okay there. Why do upsets happen? Is it pressure? Is it lack of preparation? Is it that these kids are 18-21 and make mistakes that no one can understand? I think that the answer is pressure. I try to explain to my players that sports is more mental than physical. That kid in the Northern Iowa-Kansas game took that 3 point shot and everyone in America but him was screaming what the he..... and when he made everyone said, what a great shot!! In the Villanova loss, the kid banked in a 3 with under a minute to go and created the margin for victory. Belief is stronger than ability. My high school had smallish players playing football but they had heart and belief that they could block anyone big or take down anyone larger than they were. One of the big reasons why we succeeded was a great quote by one of our coaches when he said that it wasn't the size of the dog in the fight but it was fight inside of the dog that won the fight. In other words the one who wants it more will always win. You got to make plays, make shots and when the ball leaves your hand, you got to believe that it is going in. Dan Patrick asked Reggie Miller today whether or not he would rather be known as a scorer or a shooter. He said shooter because he knew that if he missed a shot, the next one was going in. I agree. I would rather be known as a shooter because I would know that that every time I got the ball, I know that if i can get a shot off, I am going to make it. When those kids hit those 3 point daggers this weekend, that is why they shot the ball. They believed that they were going to make that shot. Belief is a Mother...shut your mouth..
So as the journey to find a champion goes the team with the most pressure on them has to be the UConn women's team. They have won 73 games in a row and looked awesome yesterday. Remember belief is a mother... shut your mouth...

i am losing my edge..

I am losing my edge blogging these days because the sports world seems to have hit a lull. I know that there are stories galore out there but nothing has really grasped my attention. March is supposed to be filled with "madness" and I just don't see how this years tournament is going to have any magic moments. The Big East and Big 12 conference had the best teams playing this season and most people expect the champion to be from one of those conferences. Kentucky is the other team that people are picking to win it all but an early encounter with Texas could derail them.
In the women's game there appears to be limited obstacles to the Uconn march to greatness. They have won 73 games in a row and if the win the title they will be only 1o games away from tying U.C.L.A's mark of 88 straight games. They may have to play Tennessee in the national semi-finals but if they are clicking on all cylinders they will be tough to beat.
Did you see in spring training the other day that Cliff Lee threw at a player and now he is suspended for 5 games!!! Barry Zito hit Prince Fielder and it was swept under the rug but everyone knows that it was retribution for the great celebration from last year when Fielder and the Brewers walked off against the Giants. Lee was getting rocked so he did it out of frustration. He is going to struggle I think this year. Seattle has a good team and if he has any kind of season they may overtake the Angels. (baseball preview coming soon)
Tiger is coming back at the Masters and I have to tell you I am a bit surprised. I thought he would play Bayhill first and get a round in in competition. Maybe he feels that since he has played the Masters so many times the course changes won't affect his game. We shall see and I hope that he, Ernie, and Geoff Ogilvy are in a group together and they get into a brawl. Jesper Parnevik sucks so he won't be a factor.
Derek Anderson signed today with the Cardinals. I hope he does well and that the Browns and Cards meet so they can boo him. Matt Leinart better be ready to fight for his job. Speaking of the N.F.L. some of these off season moves are quite comical to me. The Bears need a receiver and they think that they can get him in the draft. T.O. may be past his prime, but he is still a threat and they should sign him. The Bengals took Antonio Bryant over Owens. No wonder why they lost to the Jets in the first round. Speaking of the Jets, they get rid of Thomas Jones and bring in L.T. They are the same type of back. The Redskins signed Larry Johnson I think because they are paranoid about the health of Clinton Portis. Mike Shanahan had Portis in Denver and traded him after a 1500 yard season. The Giants signed Antrel Rolle. He was a stud in college and I think he has underachieved since being in the league. We needed defensive back help so he could be a blessing in disguise. I am interested in seeing what unfolds with other contending teams. The draft has a lot of talented players coming out and i hope the my team signs someone who can impact the team right away.
I got to say that I wish this was 10 years ago. I had lost about 50 pounds and had game to back up what i say to people. My team is so talented and lack confidence. They don't play with a chip on their shoulder like they should. No one believes in them. I know this school is not a sports oriented school, but for no seniors to come out for the team says a lot. I respect that these young men aspire to be something in life, but one should never take the field or court unless you believe that you are going to succeed. In all my of years of working with kids, i have never heard a kid say what one of my kids said after we won 16-5. He was asked why his parents were not at the game, and he said that he thought that we were going to lose. I was needless to say hurt and disturbed. Now that game 2 is approaching we have not practiced well at all. We need to win and maybe that will make them feel that they can win. I hope so...

this is my 101st blog..

This is my 101st blog and I am proud of of myself that I have been sticking to it. Today I am writing to talk about why players don't express their true feelings. Derek Andersen was cut by the Cleveland Browns the other day and blasted the fans after he was released. Today he retracted his statement but why did he not stand firm on his true beliefs? If the fans treated him as badly as he says then he should have said what he said and move on. I think that LaDanian Tomilson should do the same thing with the Chargers. He should say that it is messed up that he got hurt over the last few years and therefore his numbers dropped and that the Chargers should kiss his ass for letting him go. He gave his body and soul to that team and both of his feet and they release him? Jamal Williams should do the same. He was the best nose tackle in the game for the past five years and the Chargers get rid of him. Milton Bradley goes on ESPN and says that the Cubs may have sent him racial letters and that the people of Chicago are racist against black players who don't perform. They love Jordan, Ernie Banks, Derrick Lee, but hate other blacks that under achieve. Whether he is right or not, I feel that is what he truly believes. I respect him for saying that. I think that Tiger Woods should not shake the hands of any sponsor that released him when he wins their tournament. Accenture dropped him as a sponsor and he should take their check when he wins his next Accenture tournament and wipe his ass with it and not shake the tournament directors hand. I think that players who get cut from teams that suck should not be allowed to say a word to anyone. Guys like Greg Ellis, Terrell Owens who got cut from Oakland and Buffalo respectively need to stay out of the press and let us concentrate on the players who will be big contributors to their next team. Football is a cruel game. They take every bit of your blood, sweat, soul and tears and then release you when they feel that they have gotten enough from you. 30 is not old. I wish I was 30. These guys sign these long term deals and need to realize that getting the money early is wiser than allowing a team to restructure your deal later. The Eagles want to get rid of Donovan Mcnabb instead of paying him 12 million a season. The Panthers cut Jake Delhomme because he was owed a large salary this year. The Saints may be cutting Reggie Bush because they owe him 9 million this year. So speak out my brothers and sisters. Let the world know what you really feel. Serena Williams told that line judge that she wanted to take that ball and shove down her throat. Carl Edwards said that if you are going to mess with him on the track, he will wreck you and feel bad about it only if you are hurt. I am paraphrasing of course. That is awesome. Hockey may have fights and the goons settle things for the star players. I think that is wrong. That is another whole topic...Free Speech...

What a wacky year so far in college basketball

The NCAA selection show is a week away and some of the usual suspect may not be "dancing" this year. Connecticut Huskies lost in the first round of the Big East Tournament and don't have the resume to make the tourney this year. I think that Coach Calhoun needs to take some time off and get healthy. The Connecticut Huskies women's team are going for history and maybe the men's team needs to go watch them practice and learn what team work is all about. Coach Calhoun may need to watch so he can regain his smile and swagger back. It is so sad to see him looking so sad and yelling at every player because they have made a bad play. He will be back and so will the Huskies!!!
The Pac-10 is way down this year too. I have to say that this may be the worst division 1 conference I have ever seen. Not one team out here has any quality wins to speak of this season. UCLA, Stanford, Arizona, and Oregon have been perennials in the tournament for years and they may not make the tourney this year. When the Washington schools are the "bell cow" of your conference, you know you have trouble. With St. Marys winning their tournament last night, that is going to take away spots from the Pac-10. This conference is taking it on the chin, but they will be back next year because there are way to many good ball players out here for this to last a long time.
The North Carolina Tar Heels may not make the tournament either. They win the title a year ago and thought they had a top ten recruiting class this year and the walls have crashed down on them. They not only look lost but they look beleaguered. Coach Williams has probably aged 10 years this season because he cannot believe that his system is not working. I have never seen him so frustrated.
Billy Donovan down in Florida must be wondering what happened to his magic too. He led the Gators to two straight titles and since he had that great class he has gone the in the opposite direction. They may make the tournament but only if they can get to the finals of the S.E.C. tourney.
The point of all of this is the that mighty have fallen and they cannot get up. Signing too many one and done kids have hurt great programs like Arizona, and some of these other schools seem to get caught with the wrong players filling in for great talent. UNC and Uconn fit that description. Even though the top of the country this year is filled with one and done players, next looks promising for some of the schools that are struggling. All of these coaches can recruit, so no one should be panicking. We really should be focusing on the Uconn women's team and to see if Nebraska can meet them in the title game. We have not had two unbeaten teams play each other in a title game in a long time and maybe this is what the women's game needs. I hope it happens. I also hope that Kansas, Syracuse, Kentucky, and Duke make the final four...
Short but sweet today..

ya missed me?

It has been about two weeks since i last blogged. A lot has happened in the world of sports and I hope to talk about everything. The Olympics are over and I have to say i watched only three events. I watched the women's ice skating because one of my friends did a documentary on the woman who won the gold. So i am excited for him and hopefully this will open doors for his career. I watched hockey and learned why I prefer Olympics over the NHL. Fighting is boring and i think that the NHL needs to ban it so we can see the true artistry of the game. The other event I watched was curling and I have to say that I really don't know why that is a sport. Speed skating is a crazy sport when they all get bunched up and I enjoyed watching the relays. I am proud that America won the most medals and happy that Canada won the most gold medals. The winter Olympics is geared for people who love the wild and outdoors so i am glad that the host country represented themselves well. We should won both hockey matches but in Russia we will get out revenge. I am happy for Bode Miller and Apollo Anton Ono. Lindsey Vonn we will never know how great this Olympics could have been for you. So onwards and upwards.....
The Oscars' happened last night and can you believe that they forgot Farrah Fawcett in the memoriam section? They put Britney Murphy up twice. Same with David Carradine and Dom Deluise. Even Micheal Jackson got recognized. Very strange. I watched the Hurt Locker and thought that the message of the movie was better than the movie. I look forward to seeing the other pictures. I met Sandra Bullock and danced with her at a club once. She was cool so I am glad she won. I met Mo'nique at a club once and she gave me her drink to put down because she was walking out the club with the drink. She came to apologize for giving me the drink and tipped me 20 bucks...
The sports Illustrated swimsuit edition came out during my recess and I have to tell you that the issue is getting tackier every year. Brooklyn Decker is a pretty girl but some of the other girls in the issue leave me wondering they were selected. I only saw about five pages of it so I can not comment on what I did not see. I think that people who are offended by the magazine have reason to be offended. I do think that the magazine is pushing the line between taste and tasteless. I think that Victoria Secret is a better option. At least we know what they are trying to sell.
Tiger Woods gave a press conference and I could not believe the reaction by certain media. He does not owe us anything. He just needs to get back to playing golf and working on his marriage. He needs no advice from me or anyone who is not qualified to offer him advice. Just play golf and win some tournaments and the public will embrace you even more. The crazy porn lady who has hired Gloria Allred need therapy. I cannot believe that she hired a high profile attorney. What did she think she would get out of this situation. What can she sue Tiger Woods for? Crazy world we live in. Ernie Els needs to shut his trap too.
The NBA is in their final push for the playoffs and I am tired of hearing about Kobe Bryant being better than Micheal Jordan. He makes game winning shots against bad teams and he is the greatest player in the world. Phil Jackson needs to nip this all in the butt. Micheal Jordan did not play badly against bad teams and have to make miraculous shots to win games. The Bulls rolled everyone they played and beat the teams that they were supposed to beat. I won a lot of money betting on the Bulls. The Lakers are a weird team. They look like world beaters one night and then the next night they can't beat Milwaukee. The Celtics are old. They have one more run in them. We shall see. Lebron better seize the moment...I do have one question to ask all of the Kobe lovers.. could Kobe Bryant retire from basketball now and come back and win three titles in a row after taking a year and a half off? If you believe he can then he is better than Jordan.
Spring Training is underway.. The Mess I mean the Mets are a mess already.
I am the coach of St. Genevieve High School's baseball team. We need work. We will get ready and we will succeed... First game March 12th... check us out