Ok. I have to admit. Not every day is a hot day for news in the sports industry. And not every day is as wide-open for me to dig. So in lieu of me having time to dig, and in lieu of today having much of anything that I'd like to address...here's some links to some articles I think might be good reads for you all. Here's hoping something comes up later today for me to post a more meaningful and useful article...
NFL News:
Packers: the Least Explosive Offense in the NFL
Power Rankings Week 2
MLB News:
Clemens Wants to Pitch vs. Contender (I may go deeper into this later)
Hunt For October
NCAA:
Eye on College Basketball
Top 10 Surprising Stats
And that's all I got...for now
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Monday, September 10, 2012
NFL Weekend #1 Notes
Well, something new, something old, something blue, Peyton Manning...?????? Oh well. I was never good at rhyming anyway.
Manning was definitely the story of the weekend, but there were several other players that really gave him a run for his money. Here's a look at some notable new players on new teams:
Manning was definitely the story of the weekend, but there were several other players that really gave him a run for his money. Here's a look at some notable new players on new teams:
- Brandon Marshall made his presence known as he reconnected with old deliveryman Jay Cutler. His Bears debut couldn't have gone much better than this, catching 9 passes for 119 yards and a touchdown. Cutler went to Marshall early and often, and it was more than obvious he wanted that chemistry back that they had in Denver. And it was back for sure.
- Andrew Luck did alright, although he had several ugly picks in the game, a couple of them in the red zone. He did throw for over 300 yards, though.
- Who Dat? Not the Saints...Robert Griffin III tore them up for 320 yards and a pair of touches in the Redskins' stunning 40-32 upset. Talk about making an early-round pick count. It's too early to say that RG3 is the real deal, but like Cam Newton last year he sure makes it almost too easy to call it.
- AAAAAAaaaand...Peyton Manning killed it. The guy looked like he never lost a step. It took him a couple drives to get into it, but about the third Bronco's drive of the game the reigns were taken off and the old guy busted up the Steeler's defense like it was Swiss cheese. 253 yards and 2 TD's later, the Bronco's rolled over the Steelers 31-19. Really? a 129.1 rating in his first start in over a year, AND against the top-ranked defense? Shouldn't be possible. I guess Manning really is superhuman. We will see as the season progresses if he can stay healthy and keep up the production, but calling it now--I think he will. The Broncos have made it priority one to protect Manning in the pocket, and it showed. Except for one ugly series in the second quarter when he was sacked twice, Manning was mostly untouched. Oh...and Demarius Thomas can't be guarded. Especially by Ike Taylor. He busted for an 80-yard TD early in the 3rd quarter on a play that Manning really made happen by calling out the Steeler's blizt at the line and changing the play.
- Adrian Peterson is Ba-aaack! Fulfilling his prediction that he would be back for week 1 this season from a gruesome ACL tear, he ran 17 times for 84 yards and 2 TDs. This dude is superhuman.
- Also, Jamaal Charles came back and ran well in a losing effort
- Matt Ryan (AKA Matty Ice) is a beast. It's finally happened. With a new offensive coordinator in town, the chains were removed and Ryan may finally be well on his way to becoming the QB the Falcons know he can be. 299 yards and 4 total TDs is a good way to start off the season I think.
- Julio Jones said "thanks!" and caught 2 of Ryan's TD passes on his way to a 108-yard effort.
- Matthew Stafford threw 3 picks in a win over the Rams.
Friday, September 7, 2012
Giving the Bird!
Which fits best about the Orioles? Bottom-feeders. Cellar-dwellers. Will try but will get crushed under the weight of the division. Tied for the division lead with less than a month to go. Answer? The last one. Wait...what?! Am I serious? A team with suspect pitching and an offense that yes, can club at times, can not only be keeping pace with the mighty Yankees but also coming back and jacking their way over the Yanks last night right into the division lead? I mean this makes sense if it was, say, May, but in September? What the hell happened?!
Lets take a look via some players making this happen for the Orioles:
One name: Mark Reynolds. The guy is mashing the ball against the Yanks this year. He's got 3 multi-homer games against them this year. He's the first guy since 1938 to do that to the Yanks (ESPN.com). Oh...and he hits pretty well against the rest of the league.
Adam Jones started out hot this year then cooled off significantly, but he's coming around again in the last couple weeks. But the one thing that he's never cooled off on is clutch hitting. He leads the league in go-ahead HR in the eighth inning or later with 5 of them (ESPN.com)...including the go-ahead shot last night that put the Orioles up 7-6.
Pitching.
Closer Jim Johnson has been a revelation for them. With 41 saves so far this year, he's been dominant without using the strikeout, which tends to be pretty rare among this generation's closers. In 57.1 innings pitched, hes got a 2.83 ERA and a .98 WHIP...meaning he doesn't give much of anything up in the inning that counts the most.
SP Wei-Yin Chen has been quietly solid for them in the rotation this year. He leads the teams in IP, K, and is tops on the team in starting pitchers' ERA at 3.79. While not Cy-worthy, he's been there all season for the team and just continues to go out and do business.
This week is BIG for the O's. Last night's win was the opener of a 4-game series at home against the Yanks for them. This is HUGE for a team that really wants to prove itself; and not only that but they can put distance between them and their closest competitor in the division. They not only could make the wild card (which, at the beginning of the season would have been more that acceptable for this team) but win their division--the toughest division in baseball. If they can do their business for the rest of the season...can you say "bracket buster"? Baseball's biggest surprise team will be the playoff's biggest sleeper, and the team with nothing to lose is the most dangerous team.
And that's all I got.
More links: Stats and Info
Maybe The O's Are Just Better than the Yanks
Lets take a look via some players making this happen for the Orioles:
One name: Mark Reynolds. The guy is mashing the ball against the Yanks this year. He's got 3 multi-homer games against them this year. He's the first guy since 1938 to do that to the Yanks (ESPN.com). Oh...and he hits pretty well against the rest of the league.
Adam Jones started out hot this year then cooled off significantly, but he's coming around again in the last couple weeks. But the one thing that he's never cooled off on is clutch hitting. He leads the league in go-ahead HR in the eighth inning or later with 5 of them (ESPN.com)...including the go-ahead shot last night that put the Orioles up 7-6.
Pitching.
Closer Jim Johnson has been a revelation for them. With 41 saves so far this year, he's been dominant without using the strikeout, which tends to be pretty rare among this generation's closers. In 57.1 innings pitched, hes got a 2.83 ERA and a .98 WHIP...meaning he doesn't give much of anything up in the inning that counts the most.
SP Wei-Yin Chen has been quietly solid for them in the rotation this year. He leads the teams in IP, K, and is tops on the team in starting pitchers' ERA at 3.79. While not Cy-worthy, he's been there all season for the team and just continues to go out and do business.
This week is BIG for the O's. Last night's win was the opener of a 4-game series at home against the Yanks for them. This is HUGE for a team that really wants to prove itself; and not only that but they can put distance between them and their closest competitor in the division. They not only could make the wild card (which, at the beginning of the season would have been more that acceptable for this team) but win their division--the toughest division in baseball. If they can do their business for the rest of the season...can you say "bracket buster"? Baseball's biggest surprise team will be the playoff's biggest sleeper, and the team with nothing to lose is the most dangerous team.
And that's all I got.
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Maybe The O's Are Just Better than the Yanks
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Trine Game 1 Review
So I know I'm probably not going to be able to make all Trine's home games...but I'll try to do recaps of every game I go to. Here's the recap for the season (and home) opener:
Synopsis: Opening game
of the season. Home crowd into it and going nuts. 92-yard kickoff return. Trine
Thunder were getting some Manchester beatdown action in. Final score: Trine 24
Manchester 14.
Breakdown: Well there were good parts and some bad parts.
Luckily for the Thunder I didn’t see any really
bad parts. First the good:
·
Defense looked sharp as did special
teams. Really kept us in the game while the offense was finding their rhythm. Except
for the part where we couldn’t stop them from running the ball in the first
quarter.
·
Manchester’s special teams were awful. Not just bad…awful. Two of their
punts barely would have gotten them first downs on fourth-and-long (8 and 17
yard punts) and when they did kick the ball downfield Trine regularly ran
through the defenders for significant gains, especially on the 92 yard touchdown
return. D3 football, anyone?
·
The offense caught on in the second
half.
·
JaVonte Hence and Myron Puryear.
Now
the bad:
·
QB Ryan Hargraves really looked out of
sync. I won’t go so far to say that he can’t throw the ball…might just have not
had the timing down with his receivers. It’s the first game of the year. I’ll
give him the free pass on that one. But yes, he looked bad.
·
Defense needed a series to get in gear.
Manchester ran all over the D on their first possession but luckily we were
able to get the stop on them just outside of field goal range.
·
Manchester.
That’s
basically the big things I saw. As I said earlier, this was the first game of
the season, so there were gonna be bugs and snafus. But there were bright spots…and
hope that every game will be an improvement over the previous.
And that's all I got.
But why?
Alright so this is old news, but I feel that I have to address this and throw my two cents out on the table on it: Why the heck are the Washington Nationals shutting down Stephen Strasburg???? ...Besides the fact that he is coming back from Tommy John surgury.
Let's take a look at it via the raw data:
2012 Season Stats
Win/Loss: 15-6
Innings Pitched: 156.1
ERA: 2.94
WHIP: 1.12
K: 195
Solid stats, right? The two stats that stick out to me are the ERA and the K's. These two really show his dominance, but the ERA can be manipulated and can give a slightly inaccurate view on success. So, lets look a little closer (if you need help with any of these stats click here):
FIP: 2.64
K/9: 11.23
WAR: 4.6
BABIP: .310
Alright. So yeah. Let me interpret these stats: basically they all show that Strasburg has been getting unlucky so far this year. Yeah. That's right. Unlucky. The FIP means that if his defense behind him was perfect, Strasburg's ERA would drop by three tenths. His BABIP is on the high side--more balls that were put in play fell in for hits than probably should have, be it bad defense or just good placement. The fact that Strasburg can pull a sub-3.00 ERA and have a BABIP this high is incredible. Here's why:
LOB% (Left on base percent): 75.9%
HR/9: .75
Basically Strasburg shuts it down when there are runners on base. He also gives up almost NO home runs: less than 1 HR in a 9 inning game. Going back to the WAR, his rating of 4.6 is crazy good for a starting pitcher. Basically this means that Strasburg wins close to 5 more games for the Nats than the Nats with a replacement. Being that a SP only plays in 28-32 games a year, winning +5 more games out of 32 is just flat incredible.
So...final thoughts. Yes, I see where the doctors are coming from and why the Nats would want to shut down Strasburg. He's still coming back from Tommy John and therefore an injury risk. In my opinion, he's ALWAYS gonna be an injury risk. His throwing motion is gonna kill his arm and I feel he's a time bomb. Nothing is gonna change that. Not shutting him down early especially. They may cite shutting Jordan Zimmerman down as a valid reason for doing the same to Strasburg, but the dynamics of the seasons are completely and totally different. Last time they weren't a World Series contender. The simple fact is that you don't get the chance to play in a Series every year (except the Yankees...) even if you have basically the same team from year to year.
Basically the Nats, in an idealistic campaign to preserve their ace, are shutting him down right at the most important time in what I feel is their most important season--a season when they finally break through and become contenders. They can show this year that they belong, but not without Strasburg. I think it's a fatal decision, but on September 12, it all becomes irrelevant. He'll be done, and so will the Nats' World Series hopes.
Let's take a look at it via the raw data:
2012 Season Stats
Win/Loss: 15-6
Innings Pitched: 156.1
ERA: 2.94
WHIP: 1.12
K: 195
Solid stats, right? The two stats that stick out to me are the ERA and the K's. These two really show his dominance, but the ERA can be manipulated and can give a slightly inaccurate view on success. So, lets look a little closer (if you need help with any of these stats click here):
FIP: 2.64
K/9: 11.23
WAR: 4.6
BABIP: .310
Alright. So yeah. Let me interpret these stats: basically they all show that Strasburg has been getting unlucky so far this year. Yeah. That's right. Unlucky. The FIP means that if his defense behind him was perfect, Strasburg's ERA would drop by three tenths. His BABIP is on the high side--more balls that were put in play fell in for hits than probably should have, be it bad defense or just good placement. The fact that Strasburg can pull a sub-3.00 ERA and have a BABIP this high is incredible. Here's why:
LOB% (Left on base percent): 75.9%
HR/9: .75
Basically Strasburg shuts it down when there are runners on base. He also gives up almost NO home runs: less than 1 HR in a 9 inning game. Going back to the WAR, his rating of 4.6 is crazy good for a starting pitcher. Basically this means that Strasburg wins close to 5 more games for the Nats than the Nats with a replacement. Being that a SP only plays in 28-32 games a year, winning +5 more games out of 32 is just flat incredible.
So...final thoughts. Yes, I see where the doctors are coming from and why the Nats would want to shut down Strasburg. He's still coming back from Tommy John and therefore an injury risk. In my opinion, he's ALWAYS gonna be an injury risk. His throwing motion is gonna kill his arm and I feel he's a time bomb. Nothing is gonna change that. Not shutting him down early especially. They may cite shutting Jordan Zimmerman down as a valid reason for doing the same to Strasburg, but the dynamics of the seasons are completely and totally different. Last time they weren't a World Series contender. The simple fact is that you don't get the chance to play in a Series every year (except the Yankees...) even if you have basically the same team from year to year.
Basically the Nats, in an idealistic campaign to preserve their ace, are shutting him down right at the most important time in what I feel is their most important season--a season when they finally break through and become contenders. They can show this year that they belong, but not without Strasburg. I think it's a fatal decision, but on September 12, it all becomes irrelevant. He'll be done, and so will the Nats' World Series hopes.
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Took the Weekend Off-Recap
So yeah. Finding out that the little thing known as "Labor Day Weekend" here in America wreaks havok on general schedules and motivation. Especially when you want to watch football...play Halo...and last but not least sleep...rather than blog...do homework...anything productive.
But the good part about this is that-COLLEGE FOOTBALL IS BACK!!! I got to see several good games, but the one that impressed me most is the Oregon vs. Arkansas State game. I discussed it here.
Other thoughts from this weekend's game:
But the good part about this is that-COLLEGE FOOTBALL IS BACK!!! I got to see several good games, but the one that impressed me most is the Oregon vs. Arkansas State game. I discussed it here.
Other thoughts from this weekend's game:
- Anyone think that teams were throwing more than usual? It seemed to my untrained eye that passing yardage was up. Given this is a small sample size (1 weekend) but I sure saw a whole bunch of eye-popping passing stats posted up (see Barkley, M, Mariota, M, Smith, G).
- No, Bell, L and Lattimore, M, we aren't forgetting you. These two were of several backs that carried their teams to victory. I was certainly impressed by MSU's Bell and how he just imposed his will on the normally stout Boise State Broncos. They just had no answer for him. He ran threw tacklers (or even flew over one on one sick run) as if they had no business on the field. I'm sure Lattimore was equally impressive too, although I cant review based on the fact that I didn't personally see the game.
- Other thoughts--most teams did as expected. USC, OSU, OK, FSU and WVU all did their work and left 1-0. Surprise teams: Oregon stunned me with their blowout. No, didn't overestimate ArkSt, but Oregon's total dominance in that game caught me completely off guard. Also I expected more of a fight from Michigan. Didn't really think they were gonna win the game in the first place but really didn't think they would get shown up like they did. Shoutouts to Notre Dame for clubbing Navy.
Sunday, September 2, 2012
Oregon...oh boy
So I'm sitting here watching the Oregon vs. Arkansas State game. With two minutes to go in the Second QUARTER, the score is 50-3 Oregon. All I can say is "woooow..........". This is beyond one-sided. Every ORE posession has ended in a touchdown. Every. Single. One. Also, ArkSt can't make it past their own 40. Like...just can't. They have had ONE first down in the entire first half. So, how did it get this bad for them-or how has it been this good for Oregon?
Two names: Marcus Mariota. De'Anthony Thomas. Mariota is Oregon's freshman stud QB and he has shown it. Before being pulled for the (possible) last Oregon drive of the first half, I was absolutely blown away by his combination of poise, accuracy, and leadership. In one stretch in the first half, he connected on 10 straight completions, several (two, I think) for touchdowns. I mean, the guy has NO ceiling. Mariota, to me, is the perfect QB for this high-octane offense that is big-play oriented under head coach Chip Kelly.
Thomas can do it all and did do it all tonight. He showed his famous open-field speed on a 37-yard TD in the second quarter that he broke by just running right by the free safety. He also caught two TDs from Mariota.
UPDATE: ArkSt QB Ryan Apling just threw a dart to WR Julian Jones for a 72-yard TD. Beautiful play. 50-10 Oregon
Speaking of Apling, he's been the bright spot in the game for State. Although he threw an ugly pick, he has looked sharp...when he's given protection. Other than that they really haven't played a bad game; they've just been ultimately overmatched. Yes, they were a little sloppy with the football as they lost a fumble and threw the aforementioned pick, but basically they just don't have the personnel to beat Oregon. That's what it all comes down to.
WHOOPS UPDATE: Oregon WR D.J. Kelly let a ball slide through his hands for Oregon's first turnover. Still 50-10.
<endhalf>50-10 Oregon.
And that's all I got.
Two names: Marcus Mariota. De'Anthony Thomas. Mariota is Oregon's freshman stud QB and he has shown it. Before being pulled for the (possible) last Oregon drive of the first half, I was absolutely blown away by his combination of poise, accuracy, and leadership. In one stretch in the first half, he connected on 10 straight completions, several (two, I think) for touchdowns. I mean, the guy has NO ceiling. Mariota, to me, is the perfect QB for this high-octane offense that is big-play oriented under head coach Chip Kelly.
Thomas can do it all and did do it all tonight. He showed his famous open-field speed on a 37-yard TD in the second quarter that he broke by just running right by the free safety. He also caught two TDs from Mariota.
UPDATE: ArkSt QB Ryan Apling just threw a dart to WR Julian Jones for a 72-yard TD. Beautiful play. 50-10 Oregon
Speaking of Apling, he's been the bright spot in the game for State. Although he threw an ugly pick, he has looked sharp...when he's given protection. Other than that they really haven't played a bad game; they've just been ultimately overmatched. Yes, they were a little sloppy with the football as they lost a fumble and threw the aforementioned pick, but basically they just don't have the personnel to beat Oregon. That's what it all comes down to.
WHOOPS UPDATE: Oregon WR D.J. Kelly let a ball slide through his hands for Oregon's first turnover. Still 50-10.
<endhalf>50-10 Oregon.
And that's all I got.
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