A few NFL predictions

The NFL season starts in eight days. The bone crushing hits; season ending injuries; and mind blowing, jump out of your seat plays are almost here.

Like every sports season there are teams who have set themselves up to win, teams who are “rebuilding” (a nice word for they will suck), and a few teams that will shock the world (calling the 2008 Atlanta Falcons). This NFL season will prove to be no different.

Slumping Dodgers pick up Thome and Garland

A month ago, the Los Angeles Dodgers had the best record in MLB and no one could doubt they were the best team in baseball. They could hit, pitch and field. They had depth and were young and hungry.

A month later, and the Dodgers are limping in to the final stretch. They look wounded and are no longer the favorite team to win the World Series. They once were a balanced team. Now, they are no more than a team composed of average players.

That’s why the Dodgers picked up Jim Thome and Jon Garland off of waivers. While both players will not provide them with a savior, both players will provide the Dodgers with experienced role players who should energize the team for the playoffs.

Philadelphia Phillies are ready to repeat

The Philadelphia Phillies have made all the right moves since the beginning of the season. Whether it was signing Pedro Martinez or keeping their top prospects and trading for “only” Cliff Lee, the Phillies have found ways to shore up their weaknesses – something most MLB teams in 2009 have failed to do.

Now, rather than scrambling to complete their team and wondering if their weaknesses will haunt them, the Phillies are posed to win back-to-back division titles and another World Series.

Babying MLB pitchers

The New York Yankees pulled starter Joba Chamberlain from Sunday’s game after three innings and 35 pitches. Chamberlain was not pitching well. He had allowed two earn runs and four hits and only struck out one batter. However, the Yankees did not remove him from the game because of poor performance. It was a planned move to limit the 23-year-old’s workload.

Many teams have been following the same formula with pitchers. Whether it’s limiting their pitch count or not allowing them to pitch in consecutive games, teams across MLB have taken a microscope to the workload of their pitchers. And while it’s hard for me – a sports fan and writer with no medical background – to judge upper managements decisions, most pitcher limitations just don’t seem worth it – and seem counter productive to the ultimate goal: winning the World Series.

Vick and Favre: two QBs on different paths

Michael Vick and Brett Favre are two quarterbacks trying to make NFL comebacks. But other than that, both are at completely different stages in their careers and lives. Vick is trying to reestablish his life after criminal charges, and Favre just doesn’t want to retire.

Yet, with all of Vick’s baggage and NFL let downs, he not only has the most to gain but also is receiving a warmer reception and is acting like a seasoned veteran (something we have not come to expect from the spoiled Favre).

Theo Epstein has built another winning team

Since the Tampa Bay Rays and New York Yankees swept the Boston Red Sox in consecutive series, the Red Sox have won 11 of 16 games. Their resurgence, though, has done little to change analysts’ minds that the Red Sox can compete for a World Series title.

Yet with all the ups and downs and disappointments on this Red Sox team, they still are tied for the fifth best record (73 – 53) in MLB. One has to believe the underachieving Sox have as good a chance as any team to play in the Fall Classic – especially with the talent General Manager Theo Epstein has put together.

Nolan Ryan transforms the Texas Rangers

For the past decade, the Texas Rangers have been known for their hitting. They attempt to slug their way to wins and pray their pitching staff gives them a chance. This strategy has not worked even though their offense has consistently ranked as one of the best in MLB. The Rangers have had only one winning season and no playoff appearances since 1999.

Thanks to newly hired Team President Nolan Ryan, all that has changed in 2009. The Rangers pitching staff has finally learned how to get batters out, and the Rangers are fighting for their first postseason appearance in nine seasons.

The fight for the worst record in MLB

The Washington Nationals can’t pitch. The Kansas City Royals can’t hit. Combine both teams, and you would have a team competing for the best record in MLB. For those cities, too bad it doesn’t work like that. Instead, both teams will spend the next month and a half competing for the worst record in MLB. Who will win? I’ll give you a hint: this team didn’t just spend more than half of the Pittsburgh Pirates entire team salary on an unproven, first round draft pick. You guessed it: the Royals.

The side of sports we miss – and dream about

Imagine sports like they were when we were kids. It was only about cycles and perfect games. It was only about the Musical City Miracle. It was only about the game winning shot.

Once you delve into sports, though, you find: affairs and abortions, drugs and steroids, and greed and a business-like atmosphere.

Baseball Predictions: National League Style

Due to an unbalanced MLB schedule where teams play almost half their regular season games against their division foes, two-thirds of the NL playoff races are not over yet. The Los Angeles Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies rode hot streaks to large division leads, but now they will need to hold on to their prized possession better than Sylvester Stallone did in Cliffhanger. Four teams have hung around long enough to make the Dodgers and Phillies sweat a little.

While the Dodgers and Phillies have a cushion to relax on, the St. Louis Cardinals lost that luxury a while ago. Now, they are involved in a four-team battle for first in the NL Central.

Even with the races still up in the air with a third of the season remaining, I predict the playoff picture will not change much in the final two months of the season.

Remembering the Buick Open

The Buick Open has come and gone. Everyone is now focused on this week’s World Golf Championship tournament and next week – the last Major of the year.

And while the Buick Open cannot compare to those two tournaments, let’s not forget the Buick Open and what it meant for golf and sports. It embodied what sports should be. It was fun. It was memorable. It was exciting for the players and the fans.

Baseball Predictions: American League Style

With approximately a third of the MLB season remaining, not a single division has been won. The once dominant Los Angeles Dodgers have seen their division lead whittled to six games. Bud Selig and baseball officials have had their wish of parity granted. Too bad it created a trade deadline about as exciting as a financial analyst. Every division has at least three teams within ten games of first place so no one was willing to trade away veterans or young players to make a run at the postseason.

Even with parity and the potential for some exciting division races, the same teams as always are poised to make it into the playoffs. Guess the trade deadline won’t be the only boring part of MLB’s season – thankfully we have the World Series to look forward to.

Say it’s not so David Ortiz

Deadline trades and David Ortiz’s lovable nature has let him off the hook for now. But the sports world is still shocked to hear that Ortiz allegedly used performance enhancing drugs. I use allegedly not because I’m a Boston Red Sox fan who prays he it’s all a misunderstanding, but because Ortiz is walking down the path that most PED users have – deny it and blame someone or something else.

It’s time for MLB and athletes to start owning up to their mistakes and their past. Everyone knows hundreds of MLB players used PEDs in the past – and probably still do use them. MLB and the MLB Players Association need to demand that players announce their past usage and release the names on the 2003 list now so this painstaking Steroid Era can end. It’s what’s best for the sport and the players.

Do steroid users deserve to be in baseball’s Hall of Fame?

Rickey Henderson, Jim Rice, and Joe Gordon are in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Pete Rose is still out. And Hank Aaron believes steroid users should be admitted into the Hall of Fame but with an asterisk next to their name.

While there was little debate surrounding this year’s ceremonies, there will soon be some highly contentious year’s coming up. It’s only a matter of time before droves of highly qualified hall of fame candidates with performance enhancing drug records find themselves on voters’ lists. And how do the National Baseball Hall of Fame voters handle these athletes? Currently, they have decided to keep them far away from Cooperstown. But I think they should look at those athletes differently – as well as Pete Rose.

Tiger Woods: Still amazing after missing a cut

Every time Tiger Woods doesn’t win a PGA tournament he plays in, analysts believe he has lost his edge. They comment that he’s not the same player since he won the “Tiger Slam” in 2001.  Heck, even when he doesn’t play, he gets flack for not winning.

Those analysts are right. Woods isn’t the same golfer. He’s better.

Three MLB teams that need to make a move; two that don’t

In a mere two games, Matt Holliday has proved what a mid-season acquisition can do for a team. He’s provided more offense than the St. Louis Cardinals could have predicted yet they only won one of those games.

MLB teams are scrambling in the final week before the trade deadline (July 31) to determine if they want to trade away their young talent for most likely a rent-a-player. A few of those general managers need to gulp down some Pepto-Bismol and make a move if they want to provide their teams with that needed boost for the playoffs while others need to take their foot off of the gas pedal and not gamble their future for a false hope.

Three NFL teams that should consider Michael Vick

It’s only a matter of days before NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell reinstates Michael Vick into the NFL. It’s a smart move on his part because the public has swayed to Vick’s side and the UFL is ready to gobble him up.

However, the UFL will have to look for another player to build around (sorry JP Losman, you aren’t the man for the job). An NFL team will soon sign Vick after he is reinstated. The question is, is which team will sign him and who should go after him.

Remembering Steve McNair

After Week 12 in 2002, the Tennessee Titans had fallen a game behind the Indianapolis Colts for first place in the AFC South division and their starting quarterback, Steve McNair, was so bruised that he could not practice (and would not for the final five weeks of the season). However, that did not stop McNair from starting the final five games of the season and leading the Titans to the division title and into the AFC championship game.

Most people will remember Steve McNair for the final drive in Super Bowl XXXIV that fell a yard short from potentially forcing the first overtime game in Super Bowl history. I like to remember him for the countless times he never quit and never missed a start when he easily could have said, “I can’t play on Sunday.”

The SF Giants are winning the NL way

The San Francisco Giants have two hitters on pace to hit over 20 home runs, one hitter with an .OPS over .900, and not a single batter who strikes fear in an opponent’s pitchers. Yet, after a 20 – 23 record to start the season, the Giants find themselves in sole possession of the National League Wild Card.

How did they did they rise up from the cellar? They did it the NL way: knee-buckling pitching, smooth fielding, and enough offense to snatch up wins.

Notes on the NBA offseason

The offseason for the NBA officially began on Wednesday, and by the looks of it, it will essentially be over by next week. An abundant of talented players on the market has forced many teams to move at a frantic pace – trying to keep up with their rivals. But some players have other ideas, as they try to hold out for more money or a better destination.