Pitching Drama

The Cubs and Soxs have drama swirling around their starting rotation a week into Spring training. Mark Prior was not supposed to pitch until the second week of Cactus league games, that was yesterday. Today, the Cubs come out and say that Prior will pitch in the 5 game of the Cactus league. The Prior drama starts off early and I'm sure will be often. I just wish that he could win 15 games this year for the Cubs. Can Prior Rebound to his CY- Young form, I don't know. I just he remains healthy enough to be rotation over dead arm Wade Miller and the not-so ready youngsters. There has also been speculation that Prior was on Steroids thus leading to all his arm problems. He needs his velocity to come back along with his command. Last year, his velocity was not as high as years past. If his velocity is not back, he needs to change his way of pitching. The rotation drama begins before the games have even started.

The Soxs are not with drama after trading McCarthy and Garcia, they need a fifth starter. Auditions have starter already with the front-runner being Gavin Floyd, who hurt his ankle today at Soxs camp in Tuscon. Gavin Floyd in my eyes, should not be the front runner because he frustrated the Phillies so much that he moved them. He had a high ERA in the NL which is weaker league. Floyd is another power arm in a rotation with power arms. The 5th starter should be Charlie Haeger, who played in Triple A Charlotte. Charlie Haeger has the rare give of throwing a knuckle ball. The knuckle ball is rarely used by pitchers anymore save for Tim Wakefield and some unnamed Ranger farm hand who gave up 8 runs in one innings with it. The knuckle ball does not wear on the arm and keep his arm fresh to pitch many times.
Haeger would also be a change of pace pitcher in rotation with power arms of Contreras, Garland, and Vasquez.

That's just my idea.

This year has to be the YEAR

The Chicago White Sox were the 2005 World Series Champions. Those White Sox had the best rotation in baseball and a veteran lineup with hitters such as Crede, Dye, Konerko and pitchers such as Garland, Buehrle, and Contreras. All these players were on the 2006 roster, a 2006 roster that failed to make the playoffs.

The 2007 rosters will have almost the same roster as the 2006 team save for Brandon McCarthy and a few bench players. This team has to WIN the WORLD SERIES this season. My reasoning behind this claim is because what has transpired this off season. The free market has shot prices through the roof making players of average caliber 10 million dollar a year players.

The Soxs will not pay the crazy rates for players like Crede, Buehrle, and Dye. Kenny Williams, General Manager of the Soxs, has already told these players to explore free agency. If the Sox fail to perform, Kenny Williams could be forced to trade this players in order to maximize their value this season.

If or when these players leave the Soxs will be forced to restock their lineup with players from Triple A. The Soxs do have a very talented Triple A team, so the Sox could be in contention sooner than I think.

For all you White Sox fans this season will be the end of "window" opportunity to win another World Series. If you follow the Sox's spring training roster this year, you should follow names you might not recognize because after this season, they could in the starting lineup.

FALSE HOPE

Hope is a tricky feeling. There are various types of hope. Baseball fans during the spring are hit with the worst type of hope: False Hope. Chicago Fans especially Cubs fans are always filled with False hope. This year is no exception.

The Cubs have revamped their rotation and lineup with a 330 million dollar commitment to winning this year, not to mention the money spent on Big LOU. The Cubs additions were significant and will improve the team. The Cubs can't get any worse than 96 losses last year. The Cubs added Soriano who hit 46 home runs and stole 40 bases last year, which add thunder to a lineup that features Aramis Ramirez, and a healthy Derek Lee. The knock on "Sori" is that he strikes out too much, which also has been the knock on the Cubs over the last few seasons.

The rotation added Ted Lilly and Jason Marquis who have pitched well in previous seasons. Ted Lilly won 10 games last year but had an ERA of above 4.00. Jason Marquis was shelled last year posting an era of 5.26. I witnessed one of those game in person when the Cubs hung 6 Marquis in the first inning- Yikes! The scary thing is this guy could be our 4th or 5th starter. The knock on both men is that they are prone to the gopher ball (home run) and with Wrigley field short fences this could be a lethal combo.

Cubs fans right now have the hope that new addition paired with Lee, Ramirez, Wood( hot tub injury already), and Prior (might not make rotation) can make the playoff push.

I am being realistic and just hoping for a .500 record.

Super Bowl MVP

As I watched some Tv today, I saw that Peyton Manning will be on David Letterman this week. Dave will play up Peyton being Super Bowl MVP during the show. If the Colts won the game, Peyton being the media darling and the focus of attention was a lock to win the MVP of that game regardless of how he played. I think that it was unfairly awarded to Peyton based on his name and not on his performance during the game.

The MVP is somebody who changes the game, who carries his team, who leads his team on the game winning drive and helps score the game winning Touchdown or field goal. Peyton did not do any of those things. Peyton was good going 25 of 38 for 247, 1 TD and 1 int. He ,however, was not great, most of his passes were dump offs to his running backs Joseph Addai and Dominic Rhodes. These two back carried the Colts offense.

Joseph Addai and Dominic Rhodes deserved to be CO-MVPs of this football game. Peyton dumped the ball to them and they made the most of when they had the ball. Addai had 10 catches for 66 yards and 77 rushing yards. Rhodes was a great on the ground going for 113 yards and 1 touchdown. Both men made the first Bears defender miss their initial tackle attempt and protected the ball extremely well. Without their elusiveness the Colts would have not won the football game. If the Bears would have tackled them right away, Peyton would been forced to go down the field more. Both men helped the Colts control the clock and wear down the Bears defense. These men took the place of Reggie Wayne and Marvin Harrison who were very quiet during the game. The Colts won that Super Bowl because of ADDAI, Rhodes, and their O-LINE. Peyton got the backs the ball and they did the REST. Any QUARTERBACK could have done what Peyton did, that's why he did not deserve the MVP. ADDAI and Rhodes would have been my choice for MVP.

Peyton played smart football and Will be the best Quarterback of all time statistically but SHOULD NOT BE THE MVP of SUPERBOWL XLI.

After much thought.........................

After taking sometime and listening to talk show hosts, ESPN analysts, and columnists I have come to the conclusion, that one person is not to blame for the Bears Super Bowl Loss but the whole Organization is to blame for it. I will start with the top and work my way down placing what I think the blame should be on each part of the organization.

The Coaching Staff...
The game plans we had were AWFUL on both sides of the ball. On Defense our safeties were 20 yards off the ball before the snap, they gave MANNING the dump offs. Everyone knows in order to BEAT Peyton Manning, YOU BLITZ! We did not Blitz enough and gave him all day to throw. Brian Urlacher was motioning to the sidelines saying Let's attack him! We didn't want to get beat deep, guess what...... we got beat underneath. You have to go to the edge of defeat to win- our coaches played not to lose. Riveria, I hope you go some place else! Everytime his name comes up for a job the defense Suffers...Funny how that works??

On Offense, we did not RUN AT ALL! Thomas Jones who was a force in the NFC title game got the ball 15 times in the Super Bowl. In the NFC title game, he carried the ball 6 times on ONE drive!!! Thomas had one big run and that was it. Cedric gets hurt and we don't use Adrian Peterson. Last game of the year, PETERSON should have gotten in the game! We didn't stick with what got us there. Poor Rex did not have a chance because our line did not give him time and he is a play action passer! He can't drop straight back and just throw! Also WHY ARE WE CALLING A PASS ON SECOND AND 1- RUN THE DAMN BALL! No we lose 11 yards and then have to PUNT. We went away from what got us there! By time we did try and run it was too late.

The Players
On defense, they were on the field forever! The scheme was in part to blame for that but another major part was poor execution! There were way too many missed tackles on defense. The Colts Running backs would shake two tackles before being brought down every time. We did not fill our gaps and did not tackle. We also did not get pressure on Peyton with our front four. Except for a late sack he had all day to throw, he could not goo deep though. Our Corners, Vasher and Tillman I thought played well except for the Reggie Wayne TD!

On offense, the O line should have dominated the smaller Indy Line. We did not give Rex time to throw and did not block well enough to run. Rex also had a hand in this, poor execution on that double move to Moose, he over threw it. On the one to Berrian, he lofted it a little too much. Those things happen, but fumbles on SNAPS should not happen. I think he fumbled more on snaps that anyone in the league this year. That should not happen; poor execution doomed the Bears on the offensive side of the ball.

After all the fumbles and mistakes The Bears were still in this game until the fourth quarter. I am not upset that the Bears LOST. I am upset in how we went about losing! We did not bring our best effort to this game.

The next blog will be about who I thought DESERVED THE MVP.

ENOUGH!!!

Enough, Someone decided to paste and repaste a comment from a blog when I was angry with Rex Grossman's play and wanted him benched. It was after the second vikings game. He played well the next three and I was BEHIND HIM! I did not stop supporting Rex, I merely had a laspe in faith. I get a printout of the blog and written in Red pen was circled my comments on how I wanted Rex to be Benched at the TIME!! I waivered in my support of Rex after that game but I still support him. I unlike most people who are Bears Fans do not blame Rex for every offensive problem. I do not call for Griese on every errant throw and every fumble.

I know who the the letter came from and I understand the mocking message because I made an error early in the season. Whoever keeps pasting the comments needs to WRITE down their own thoughts. I did not take back blog because that how's I felt at the time. If you notice I wrote two blogs in support of Grossman and I did not BASH him after he SUCKED against the Packers. I don't see any comments abouts me not posting about that. Everyone trashes their GUY after a bad game, if you says you don't trash your GUY after a bad game. You are lying to yourself. Read the newspapers, sports writers do this all the time!

I support Rex Grossman!!! DO YOU PEOPLE???? Honestly, I do not think so!!!