League Predictions - NL

Continuing from yesterday, we move to the National League. Again, first my friend Matt's predictions:

NL East
Mets, Phils, Braves, Marlins, Nats

NL Central
Brewers, Cardinals, Reds, Astros, Cubs, Pirates

NL West
Dodgers, Dbacks, Padres, Rockies, Giants

WC:
Phils

My Picks:

NL

East

Phillies - This isn't strictly a hometown pick. The Phillies weakest area last season was starting pitching. Only 61 of their 85 wins were attributed to starters...nine different pitchers. The Phillies solidified their rotation going into this season. I did rough estimates for each of the starters based on their previous 3-5 years and potential (in Hamels case.) My estimates gave me 68 wins for the starters (the math can be seen at the end of this post.) With the same bullpen (ignoring that more starter wins gives less chances of bullpen wins), my conservative estimates would put the Phillies at 92 wins.

Mets - This team simply has too many holes in their starting pitching to contend with the Phillies. In a key series late in the year between the teams, who are the Mets going to throw that can possibly shut down the Phillies offense? Pedro's career as we know it is over. Glavine is hanging by a few threads to get those last few wins to solify his HOF career. Orlando Hernandez is not the pitcher he once was. And with the young pitchers they will bring to camp, it's difficult to pitch in the Big Apple as it is, let alone as a rookie. This team is good, but not great...last year was their year, and they blew it. I will give them the wild card though...and a first round playoff exit.

Marlins - This will be a shocker as the Fish will beat out the Braves and finish not far behind the Mets. This team had about half of it's young players produce last year. Look for a few other young players to come around, along with the continued development of last year's stars. They had 6 players who got rookie of the year votes, and will have a few more this year. This team is 2 years away from their next World Series appearance, so the Phillies must take their chances now.

Braves - This team improved their bullpen from last season, but lost it's first basemen (who they sold high) and their second basemen (who they sold low). A bullpen can only do so much without a solid pitching staff and good offense. Look for Andruw Jones to be traded when this team is floating below .500 around the deadline.

Nationals - They don't deserve to be mentioned in this post. The non-trade of Soriano last year was a disaster. They didn't give up too much to get him, but letting him go for free was moronic, especially considering he didn't help the team win anything. All 5 rotation spots are up for grabs, since Patterson still needs to prove he's healthy.

Central

Brewers - This division is nearly impossible to predict. And while the Cubs spent all the money, the Brew Crew quietly solidified an underrated team. They have the most balance, with a solid rotation, a very good bullpen, a few rising stars, and a good mix of veterans. I expect this team to come firing out of the gate and open some eyes in April while the Cubs wilt under the pressure. I think this team has the balance and depth to sustain the season.

Cubs - No matter how good the Cubs look on paper, they never seem to figure it out. Soriano's contract was one of the worth of the offseason, and I'm glad it wasn't the Phils behind it. Changing a guy's position for the second straight season is not a great idea. The wildcard for this team has always been Wood and Prior. If the two of them somehow put their careers back together (Wood as a closer), with Zambrano and the offense they've assembled (D Lee is a sleeper going into this year), they will handle the Brewers for the division. But like I said, never bet on the Cubbies.

Cardinals - The world champs will be huge flops. If there ever was a team that needed to do SOMETHING in the offseason following a championship to compete the following season, it was this team of overachievers. Outside of Pujols and Rolen, Edmonds is getting old, and Eckstein will likely come down to earth. There was a reason this team won less games than the Phillies. I am still mad about that.

Reds - This is a decent team, but losing Griffey will not help (what a shame...him and Grant Hill should take up chess). Their rotation is average, and they have a few good youngsters floating around. I think this team is a year away from contending, especially in this division.

Astros - It's the end of an era with Bagwell not coming to camp this year. Biggio overachieved last year. The Lee signing was of desperation, and they will get burned badly in a few years. Bringing back Richard Hidalgo is just stupid. This team has a few good pieces, but simply has too many holes for this division.

Pirates - At least the hockey team is finally playing well. Even with LaRoche, the team will still be last in the league in homers. This team is years and many smart decisions away from contending.

West

Dodgers - The Schmidt and Wolf signings were exactly what this team needed. They will lead with their pitching, and follow with a lineup that got slight upgrades from last season. They do need one of their young outfielders to step up and replace Drew's production.

Padres - Adding Maddux and Wells may backfire if both struggle to stay healthy due to their age. Losing Piazza and Roberts from an already anemic offense will hurt, though I expect a good season from Marcus Giles and a few of the young players. I expect this team to play slightly above average baseball.

Giants - I hate this team. Zito is not as good as advertised, and Bonds will hopefully finish the year in prison (way to drop the ball in that interview Howard. Next time, just say "no comment." Bonds is a lier and a cheater.) Their rotation is decent. But frankly, until this team ditches Bonds, they will not win.

Arizona - This team has a good rotation and will have a few young players trying to break through this season. I like them to challenge the Giant for third place.

Rockies - I like this team a lot more than most last place teams. I think they did the right thing selling high on Jennings. They will take this year to get some of their young talent sorted out, and could make a push late, or simply make some noise next season.

Final Thoughts

My predictions have the Phils starters like this:

Moyer

Last 6 years: 20, 13, 21, 7, 13, 11,
2007: 13

I actually like him more than Lieber or Eaton for the bullpen early in the season if we can't trade Lieber. He's got a rubber arm, throws junk, and would provide some lefty experience in the pen.

Myers

Last 4: 14, 11, 13, 12
2007: 13

I see Myers being a solid #2 for his whole career. He's still young, but I think he's too up and down to be an ace. I think he's good for 12-16 wins for a few years, though.

Eaton

Last 4: 9, 11, 11, 7
2007: 11

Those last two numbers represent shortened seasons. This guy has the stuff to be a very good #3 if he's healthy. I know that's a big if, but I think he gives up more than 20 starts this year, and hits double digit wins.

Hamels:

2007: 16

In his last 90 or so innings, this kid put together 8 wins...stellar for a guy his age. Look for him to double that inning and win total this season.

Garcia

Last 6: 16, 12, 13, 14, 17
2007: 15

I combined two seasons for the 13 win number above (about 10 games and 20 game seasons). He will inherit the ace role, and continue pithing in front of a good offense like the ChiSox. I think this is a low estimate, if his stuff transfers favorably over to the NL, I look for him to get 16-18 wins with his rubber arm.

League Predictions - AL

In the absence of baseball news, I decided to make my predictions for the upcoming baseball season. This includes a mini guest posting from my friend Matt, who sent me his own predictions:

AL East
Red Sox, Yanks, Blue Jays, Orioles, DRays

AL Central
Indians, White Sox, Twins, Tigers, Royals

AL West
Angels, Rangers, A's, Mariners

WC:
Yanks

I will go into a little detail for each of my picks.

AL

East

Boston - I hate this division. I'd love to take the Blue Jays here avoiding the evil empires, but Boston's pitching staff is insane, and even without a closer, they will score a ton of runs and are one of the top 3 teams in baseball. With all the press going to DM, I think Papelbaum will actually steal the show and continue his dominance from the starter's spot. Seriously, DM, Schill, Paps, Beckett, Wakefield, Lester...5 or possibly 6 guys that could be aces on other teams (think Nationals).

Yankees - Their rotation, outside of Wang, is simply underwhelming. Petite will replace Johnson's innings, as well as his effectiveness. Mussina's more likely to return to his 04/05 numbers than replicate 06 as he approaches 40. You can't count on rookies, especially pitchers, in New York. They have distractions in Bernie and A-Rod. Barring a major midseason move, I see them settling for the Wild Card (mostly because there isn't much competition for the WC in the AL). This is assuming they will are a player in the Clemens sweepstakes.

Blue Jays - Last year's Cubs couldn't maintain their momentum and lost a few players this offseason. Assuming they stay healthy, they will play slightly better than .500 baseball and still beat up on the O's and DRays.

Orioles - They are a disaster. Leo Mazzone's magic simply hasn't transferred to the AL. They could not afford to lose Kris Benson. They need to trade everyone over 30 and start over.

DRays - Will have potentially the best outfield in baseball, but not much else. They are slowing getting better in one of the hardest divisions. They could challenge the O's for fourth place, though.

Central

Detroit - The team without any holes still managed to add Gary Sheffield. While at least one of the young pitchers are bound to slump, the team has the most depth of any in baseball. The rest of the division seemed to take a step back, while they inched forward.

Cleveland - This was a better team than they played last year. Good play from young players and healthy seasons from veterans will float them just above Chicago. They will also have a pair of former Phillies (Michaels and Dellucci) sharing time in the outfield.

ChiSox - I still can't figure out why they traded Garcia, AND THEN traded McCarthy. It seems like the Sox spent the offseason getting better for 08. Counting on Gavin Floyd to hold down the 5th starter spot could be a disaster. I think Thome will take a step back from last season's numbers. The other FAs-to-be starting pitchers are sure to be gone at the trade deadline if the team struggles, leaving them to finish flat.

Twins - Losing Liriano will hurt this team more than one can imagine. I think Silva is an ok #3, but I don't like him as a 2, especially after his injuries. They don't have the offense to carry a subpar pitching staff (after Santana). If Morneau or Mauer get hurt or take a step back, they are in big trouble. Tori Hunter will get traded before the end of the season.

Kansas City - Please just contract this team. Alex Gordon should be a stud, but after so many bad years, shouldn't they have a team full of top 5 draft picks?

West

A's - Losing Zito won't hurt that much, as he's simply not as good as he used to be, and the A's have depth behind him. Losing Thomas won't hurt either with Piazza coming in. They may not reach last year's 93 wins, but they held their ground while the other teams didn't close the gap.

Angels - While the Matthews signing was terrible, it does sure up a shaky outfield, and return Figgins back to his super Utility role. Their rotation should be good, even without Colon, and any team with Vlad will score runs. That being said, I only expect about 86 wins from this team.

Rangers - Their rotation is serviceable, and I think Teixera, Blalock and Wilerson return to their previous form. The question mark is Gagne, who if healthy, could give them an extra 2-5 wins. I am betting on him missing time again, or at least losing effectiveness, and this team barely missing the Angels.

Seattle - Trading Soriano for Ramirez was inexcusable. Especially because I wish the Phillies would have given them Lieber and even Roberson if they wanted for him. They should, but probably won't, lose Ichiro after this season. This team needs to rebuild.

Keep an eye out for the NL predictions tomorrow.

Looking Back...the 1997 MLB Amateur Draft

I was thinking about Jeff's comment regarding his preference about keeping Randy Wolf over Jamie Moyer. I decided that since Moyer pitched for us as long as Wolf last season, what about Wolf compared to Adam Eaton, the new old Phillie? I had a feeling they've had similar careers to date, so I did some research. First, the stat lines (click them for bigger font...I can't figure out how to get tables to show up larger):

Wolf

Eaton

As you can see, Wolf has had the slightly more impressive career to date...and he's a lefty. The similarities between the players, however, go past the major league stats.

The facts:

Eaton was drafted in the first round by the Phils in the 1996 draft. Wolf was drafted in 1997 in the second, more on that to follow later.

Aside from similar major league stats, the two had the exact same ERA in the minor leagues, 3.63.

Eaton had more minor league innings (mostly due to rehad stints), and threw to a 30-26 record while Wolf ended his minors career at 20-14.

Both have clearly dealt with injuries in their career, Eaton most recently with his finger, and Wolf with his Tommy John surgery.

Wolf clearly has the rubber arm, throwing over 200 innings 3 times in his career. In Eaton's defense, he did throw 199.1 and 183 in two injury free seasons in San Diego (putting the comment about him never throwing 200 innings in perspective. Wolf threw 210, 206, and 200 even...not exactly blowing away the 200 mark, but reaching it nonetheless).

Both are good hitting pitchers, with almost identical career batting averages. Wolf has the slight edge as a career .194 batter to Eaton's .191.

Their slugging % is nearly identical, with Wolf again the slight leader at .280 to Eaton's .274. This is mostly due to the fact that Wolf has 4 career homers, to Eaton's two.

Wolf is a bit of a freeswinger, though, as Eaton leads the OBP by a huge margin at .270 to .235.

My theory about the Phillies letting Wolf go because they didn't want a pitcher outhitting Nunez over the course of a full season apparently couldn't have been more off with Eaton coming in the door. Maybe they figure he'll be rusty from the AL.

To my surprise, Eaton has actually stolen 5 bases in his career, getting thrown out only once. Wolf has never attempted.

What's this all mean? Well, of course I'd rather have Wolf back. Eaton, however, is nearly as good, when healthy, and the team already has two lefties diminishing the value of Wolf's lefthand (though they probably don't resign Moyer if Wolf stays). So, understanding the health concerns, I'm fine with Eaton as our #4/5. Actually I'm thrilled with it. At the end of the day, he's better and more consistent (even given the injury history) than Ryan Madson and Gavin Floyd, two-fifths of last year's season starting rotation. I understand he was expensive, but if we get two nearly healthy seasons out of him, it has to be considered a positive outcome.

I stand by my word, if we didn't get Eaton and the Garcia trade didn't happen, we would have been in a bidding war for Gil Meche and counting on Lieber not showing up to camp at 280 pounds. I also think we may have had to give up more for Garcia since we clearly would have been getting desperate, and the ChiSox would pitted us against the Mets or someone else. Instead, we had a full rotation already, and realized that they were desperate to get Gio Gonzalez back.

More on the 1997 Draft

Now playing third base for the Philadelphia Phillies: Troy Glaus.

Ok, this obvously isn't true. But do you know when Troy was drafted? Not just in 1997, but with the third pick overall. Right after we took J "D battery in the face" Drew. Can you imagine if the Phillies drafted and retained Glaus instead of Drew? An infield consisting of 4 All-Stars...with everyone just hitting their prime with Glaus only turning 30 this season. Sure he strikes out a lot and isn't known for his defense, but he averages 37 home runs per year. Ah to dream.

One a related note, I get extremely angry everytime I'm reminded that the Phillies had a trade worked out for Hank Blalock, until John Lieber decided to have his worst outing of the year against the Nats, I believe, right before the trade deadline. Blalock coming off a bad season for an overweight Lieber would have been an incredible heist. There would be no Wes Helms or Abe Nunez to worry about. No worrying about Pat Burrell. Manual could flip flop Burrel and Blalock behind Howard based on who was hot. What a nightmare for opposing pitchers!

Back to the former draft pick, known as schmuck. I thank the heavens that he did not win the World Series last year with the Cardinals. I may have to give up on baseball if he wins a ring before our beloveds do.

More on the 1997 draft, the first player taken, Matt Anderson by the Tigers, is out of baseball after a short career with an ERA over 7, proving that nothing is guarenteed. After Glaus was taken 3rd, his current teammate, Vernon Wells was taken 5, followed by Jon Garland at 10, Lance Berkman at 17, and even Adam Kennedy at 20, all players I'd rather have than our short time with Jason "Fisticuffs" Michaels who was our sandwich pick compensation for the schmuck not signing.

Oddly enough, Jayson Werth was taken with the 22nd pick in the first round...as a catcher. After Wolf was taken at 2 in the 2nd round, Scott Linebrink went at #4, a reliever mentioned in the Lieber and Rowand trade talks. Then, Chase Utley went at #76 overall to the Dodgers...as a shortstop. Utley went to UCLA and was drafted by the Phils in the first round in 2000. The Phils next 2 picks in the 1997 draft never went past A ball, and then in round 5 they drafted Derrick Turnbow, another guy mentioned in trade rumors.

Overall, the draft was a complete bust for the Phillies. They only selected one player who made an impact, and he is no longer with the team. A few better choices would have put this team in the playoffs a few times in the last couple years. It's amazing that an entire draft, with 50 rounds, netted the Phillies one major league baseball players. Thank goodness Arbuckle has learned from that debacle.

P.S.
I am a Flyers fan, but the team apparently did not like my credentials, so they are giving me nothing to write about in the first year of this blog. I guess I have to prove my writing skills before they will win again.

On that note, they beat Detroit tonight for a 6-1 win...a score that would have meant a whole lot between about 1998 and 2003. They are utterly terrible, and not yet even rebuilding, though Forsberg will be traded soon to the highest bidder a la Allen Iverson. They will feel the effects of Bobby Clark's "basher mentality" for a long time, however.

Off Season in Review

Sorry I've been gone for so long - sometimes that long, cold winter really gets to me. But now the sun is still up at 5pm, and we are just four days away from hearing those 4 beautiful words - pitchers and catchers report. That means the first day of spring is just around the corner - the Phils play their first MLB game on March 1 against Detroit. I don't care about your pagan groundhog rituals, your sunworshipping, or the fact that it will probably snow that day - when the Phillies start playing, its Spring. Cue up "Centerfield."

Anyway, although every indication is that Gillick isn't done dealing yet this year, let's take a look at the highlights from the offseason.

Best Moves of the Offseason
1. The Freddy Garcia trade - I don't care that we gave up some pitching potential for one year of a pitcher, this was a great trade and the kind of move we have to make to take it to the next level. Garcia is a top of the rotation winner and will hopefully take some pressure off of Myers (although Myers needs to be the team's ace because he is better than Garcia when he is in shape and throwing fastballs instead of punches).

2. Not giving away Lieber or Rowand - Lieber probably will be traded, and I won't have a problem for that as long as it gets us something good in return. Let's not try the switcheroo where Lieber goes for a decent outfielder and Rowand goes for a reliever - it had better be an All-Star closer who is willing to be the set up man while Gordon's arm stays on his body. Rowand is one of those guys that people who look at stats don't like - he strikes out too much, doesn't walk enough, doesn't have enough power, and isn't fast enough to cover the kind of ground that the A-list centerfielders do. But he plays great defense, fans love him, and players rally around him - he is the kind of guy that championship teams have (see Eckstein, David). And we might need Lieber if we have an injury (which we will).

3. Not signing Alfonso Soriano - yes, Soriano is a beast of a hitter, a base stealing machine, and apparently a pretty good outfielder. He also strikes out 100+ times a year and came with an insane price tag and long term contract that can drown a franchise. He replaces Burrell, and is better, but not enough different to change the make up of the team, except killing us when we sign Howard long term, also. Good non-move there.

Worst Moves of the Offseason
1. Not offering arbitration to Aaron Fultz - what was going to happen, we had to pay $3 million for one year of a reliable reliever? He probably wanted more years and was going to sign elsewhere, so we get a draft pick. If he signs, we get his pitching, which will be pretty solid once again. Don't say I didn't warn you when we make a trade in mid-July for a veteran lefty reliever who makes more money and isn't any more effective than Fultz. Not sure what they were thinking.

2. Signing Adam Eaton - I'll give Gillick the benefit of the doubt in two areas here: a) I thought at the time this was too much money, but it turns out that it is under-market, so good for them, b) I'll assume they didn't know we'd end up with Garcia. I also like the fact that we drafted 3/5 of our starting rotation and 4/8 of our starting lineup (Burrell, Rollins, Howard, Utley). But Eaton isn't that good and you just know he is going to get hurt. I can feel the injury coming, and I put the over-under at June 10.

3. (tie) Signing Wes Helms, Rod Barajas, and Jayson Werth - seriously, Wes Helms, Rod Barajas, and Jayson Werth are going to play for the World Series champions? Whatever. So Taguchi, I guess.

And a special bonus category, Absolute Ridiculous Move Of The Off-Season: $50M for Gary Matthews Jr. Well, maybe the Angels know more than I do, but from here, it looks like no one ever made more off of one catch since Aaron Rowand's plastic surgeon. Matthews hit .313-19-79 last year. Previous career bests were a .275 average, 17 HRs and 55 RBI. The Angels will be his 7th team in 9 years. He is 32. That, my friends, is Absolutely Ridiculous, with a capital A and a capital R.

Random Philly Sports Notes

Just some random recaps from the week:

Spring Training

The Phillies packed up their big rig for Clearwater. This article details exactly what goes to spring training with the team. My favorite:

There were 400 batting helmets on the truck? Four hundred?

"We have them with the [ear] flap on the left, with the flap on the right, and some with double flaps," Sheridan said. "We have them from size 6 7/8 to 8. Howard wears a 7 5/8. Todd Pratt wore an 8. And we have a few extra for Chase."

Sheridan explained that fiery second baseman Chase Utley can be a little hard on helmets.

"He'll go through six or seven a year," Sheridan said. "Somehow they end up having accidents, as he likes to say."

Schmidt and Burrell

Mike Schmidt critized Pat Burrell again, this time throwing Adam Dunn under the bus too, for striking out too much. This article details the interview.

Now I realize Schmidt has reached immortal status where he can say whatever he wants to the media (Curt Schilling is still striving to attain that status), but seriously, come on now, Mike! Critizing players for striking out too much, just like you, and saying they need to have a revelation, at 30, that you're having at 58. There isn't anything wrong with wishing the players well, but it comes off as a pointless scold from a stereotypical senile elder.

I'll ignore Adam Dunn because he doesn't mean anything to me. Schmidt is obviously the far better player than Burrell. Schimdt struck out 127 timees for an average 162 game season in his career to Burrell's 166. Schmidt's highest year exceeds Burrell's (180 to 162), though Burrell has been consisently higher (lowest career total is 130 to Schmidt's 80s towards the end of his career).

I realize Pat was a moron and refused Schimdt's help during his horrible slump year's back, but it seems like this interview was almost done out of spite. If Mike really wanted to help, I think he could have given Pat a call or paid him a visit to discuss things. Then, go to the media afterwards and talk about the chat they had. But, like I said, who am I to criticize Schmidt. Hopefully it doesn't shake Pat too much.

Jeff Garcia

This article pisses me off. Now I'll admit Jeff Garcia didn't pick the headline, and some of his words were most definitely taken out of context, but if Jeff Garcia is even thinking about leaving Philly for a starting role for a bad team, he's a complete and utter fool. The man is not starting QB material, not anymore atleast. He is for a few teams, but that only means that they don't have any talent on the roster. He just came from two bad situations (see Browns, Lions) where he got to start for last place teams. He's not getting any younger, and you would think he would be willing to resign with the Eagles for close to the minimum for another shot at the Super Bowl. Either that, or go start for the Bears since they clearly could have used him.

I also think it's a joke that another article I saw made resigning Garcia a priority saying the Eagles won't go to the Super Bowl without a capable back up behind McNabb. If McNabb doesn't stay healthy for a seaon, the Eagles will never win the Super Bowl during the McNabb era, unless we end up with the Joe Montana, Steve Young combination. McNabb is still the best quarterback on the team, and one of the best in the league. You need a back up to fill in for a couple games, but if he goes down for the season again, we are simply not winning it. The team is not built with enough talent to have a disposable quartback. It was nice that the players rallied around Garcia, but he should not be the QB of this team. Overpaying for a capable backup, such as him, would be a huge mistake this offseason. Let him start for a bad team for an inflated salary and a losing record.

Weird note:

I was looking at the Phillies spring training roster and noticed that Tom Gordon and Jamie Moyer, the team's two oldest players and integral parts of the team's pitching staff, share the same birthday (11/18) exactly five years apart. Combined, they have 83 years of life experience. The same amount as Chase, Jimmy and Ryan Howard combined (whose birthdays are all around the same time as well, 12/17, 11/27, and 11/19 respectively).

Sixers winning 6 of their last 10?

With tonight's 100-98 win over the Nets, the Sixers now have a positive winning percentage in their last 10 games. That's right...positive. Add to that note Iguodala and Dalembert's efforts in tonight's game.

AI: 23 pts (8-18) 7 Reb 15 A
Sam: 14 pts (7-10) 17 Reb 4 Blocks

15 Assists? 17 Rebounds? It was only the Nets, but come on, you have to be impressed.

Iggy has played in every game over the last 2 and a half seasons for the Sixers. This year, his shooting % has dropped slightly to 46%, while his free throw % has been the best in his career. His scoring is also way up to make up for the absense of Iverson and Webber, but his assists are way up as well, nearly 2 more than any other season. His turnovers are up, as he is forced to handle the ball more, but he leads the league at 2.1 steals per game, so his defense has been steadily great. He is quietly coming into his own.

Dalembert has been an enigma since he came to the Sixers. He finally seems to be earning part of that huge contract he signed this past offseason, however, as he's averaging almost 11 points, 8 rebounds and 2 blocks, in the most minutes per game of his career. His shooting has been ridiculous, as he's shooting 55.5% from the floor, and 72.8% from the line, both career highs.

Korver, Hunter, Miller and Joe Smith have all contributed this season as well. After searching to find themselves following the departures of their stars, this young team is starting to play basketball the right way. I hate to say it, but I'm glad they are far enough down in the standings that a few extra wins the rest of the season won't hurt their draft standing that much. But more important than draft position is the realization of the potential of the guys on the roster. This team will be legit in a few years. If they draft well with their 3 first rounders, I can see them as a low seed (7 or 8) in a terrible Eastern Conference next year. Once Webber's contract, and later Miller's (if they don't trade him) come off the books, a few key signings could push the team up to top 3 position in the conference. Now all this comes with the big IF, named Billy King. But Larry Brown may be back on the bench by that point and also making basketball decisions. Nevertheless, I'd rather root for an up and coming young team than for a group of overpaid, underperforming stiffs with a one man scoring show (I still love you Allen).

Oh, and it's still BS that Iggy didn't win the dunk competition. He should have won on that backboard dunk alone. I don't care how short Robinson is; it took him 15 trys to hit his final dunk. Iggy was a stand up guy. I'm glad he's blowing the competition off this year based on spite. This year should be good, however, with Gerald Green, Dwight Howard, and rubberband man Tyrus Thomas. And oh yea, that punk Nate Robinson will be back, too. Sends a great message to the kids...suspended 10 games, come back to the dunk competition. The NBA makes one bad decision after another.

Thoughts on the Super Bowl

My thoughts on the Super Bowl:

The Bears got a kickoff return for a TD, and still couldn't make it a game. How ugly would it have been without Hester's return?

The squib kicking was a joke, they could have kicked it out of bounds with the same result. It was like intentionally walking Howard for the rest of the game after a first inning home run.

The first quarter was an awesome disaster.

I've never seen two sets of back to back fumbles in the same game before.

The angle coming out of Rex Grossman's hand on passes over 10 yards is greater than 45 degrees.

The 12 men on defense challenge was a little strange, but how didn't they have a camera angle on it? This is the Super Bowl for heaven's sake.

They need to redo the challenge rules to allow unlimited correct challenges. Regardless of if the Colts were right about the first one, they were right about the second one, and should have been granted another challenge if they needed it.

That ref that overturned the sideline catch before it was overturned by the booth is a tool. He didn't have position to make that call or overturn the ref who did.

I know it was raining, but the Colts initial reaction to winning the game was extremely bland, at least from what the TV showed.

Brian Urlacher seemed to point his finger at someone else after every Colts first down. Grow up.

The Bears defense has not been dominating since about week 12.

The need to get rid of the stupid K balls. The botched extra point, and bad snap on another Colts FG could have decided the game. All so there are less touchbacks on kickoffs? Please.

GoDaddy.com paid $6.4 Million to show the same stupid commercial twice...not that I was ever going to visit the site anyway, but now I am boycotting.

Did I miss the memo that everyone was supposed to have talking animals in their commercials?

Football announcers, by and large, are terrible. Merrill Reese should have done the play by play with Harry Kalas assisting.

10,000 pieces of Bears Super Bowl XLI Champions merchandise is shipping out to Africa tomorrow.

The Bears proved that the NFC was absolutely terrible this year.

Rex Grossman will not start more than 5 games for the rest of his career.

Brett Favre is coming back. The Packers were decent this year among a slew of injuries. If they draft all defense, with a few key signings, they have the players to make an impact next season.

The Eagles would have made for a better Super Bowl.

Myers signed through '09

The Phillies today signed Brett Myers through 2009 today with a 3 year/$25.75 Million deal.

First off, after Utley's deal, Gillick returned to old form with only a 3 year deal to a pitcher. This move makes sense for a lot of reasons. Myers was arbitration eligible, and he wasn't happy with the Phils offer. He made $3.3 Mil last season, asked for $5.9 and would probably have received just over $5. So take that away from the total and they are essentially paying him $20 over 2 years, or $10 per. With Adam Eaton averaging $8 per, that's not a bad figure.

The Phillies bought out Myers' last two arbitration years and delayed free agency for one more. The only thing I would have liked to see would have been a club option for a 4th year, even if it included a $1 Mil buyout. That's still a relative low risk, considering Myers is only 26, and should only get better.

Regardless, this move keeps their bulldog happy for the next few years and provides an anchor in the rotation (for stability...not the Jon Leiber kind of anchor). This was the perfect move for Gillick and for the Phillies.