Tuesday Storm Watch Thoughts

1) Apparently nobody that was selected for the NFL pro bowl is playing - They're on their what, 7th replacement QB and about 9th WR? I think that's Bruce Gradkowski music playing in the background........ Can we just do away with this and agree it doesn't work for football? Just select the team, post it and be done with it. Enough already. Instead of this watered down pro bowl, why not have one of the high school all star games this weekend (bill it as "The Future Bowl" or something). I'd be way more interested in that. Why not move the UnderArmour Bowl which was played Jan 2nd to the weekend before the Super Bowl? When it's played now, it probably gets mixed in with the college bowl games taking place at that time. Why not move it to give it more prestige? Someone call UnderArmour and get this done immediately!

2) Travis Harrison - Who? Well he's the future Bryce Harper, but you just don't know it yet. Harper, as we all know, came to prominence last year after the SI cover story talking about him hitting those long home runs (and if you're not familar with him, check out my post from June 12th last year). Well back in early January, Harrison (a junior out of Aliso Niguel Ca.) broke the record that Harper set last year at the Power Showcase Home Run Derby. Harper hit a ball last year 502 feet, well this year Harrison hit one 504. What do they have in common? Well for one, neither won the showcase.... Harrison is a Junior, so expect to see him back next year. As a claim to fame here, I coached an all star team a few years back and we faced Harrisons team in a district semi finals game. He led off the game with about a 400 ft home run (or at least it seemed it). Not bad for a 12 year old. If anyone out there in Indiana knows Ryne Bryne, let him know Harrison finally hit one farther! Here's the link to the Power Showcase website - Harrison Sets Tropicana Record!

3) Sheets Signs With A's - Today Ben Sheets signed a 1yr, 10 million dollar contact with the Oakland A's. I won't go into whether this was a good signing or not, but similar to what the A's did last year in getting Matt Holiday, I think this is what they're doing this year with Sheets. This team is not ready to contend so why dump 10 million into an often injured 31 year old pitcher? I think they're hoping he's healthy and pitches well in the first half so they can unload him at the trade deadline and pick up prospects. They'll be on the hook for half his salary and hopefully get 1 or 2 young guys that they can groom. I can't really see any other reason for this signing.

4) If Brett Favre Rules Applied To Baseball - Was anyone really surprised that Favre threw that interception at the end of their game with the Saints? While he had a great season this year, those INT's have been his achilles heel the last 7 years. I think most football fans outside of Minnesota were waiting all year for a killer INT to happen and it finally did. Surprised AbSoLuTeLy no one..... As to the title of this thread, I saw this post from Craig Calcaterra over at NBC Sports and couldn't resist. It's hilarious! You have to check out the link - If Brett Favre Rules Applied To Baseball. By the way, I can't stand Tom Jackson!

5) Colts Defense - I've been tremendously impressed with their defense. You know with Manning what you're going to get on offense, but their defense has stepped up and played great. They are 4, 4.5 point favorites going into the Super Bowl and justifiably so. It's going to take an error free game by the Saints to beat them and I'm not sure even that's going to be enough.

6) Zeke Getting Hammered - Well my prediction of the FIU basketball team winning 14 games is nearing it's death.... With a win last Saturday, their record now stands at 7-17 with 8 regular season games left. They've just haven't been able to get on a roll and get a winning streak going. As I've mentioned before, it looks like they've got a great recruiting class coming in next year and it just got better recently with the announcement that Alex Legion will be transferring from Illinois. Legion is a highly recruited kid who has a big time background but just hasn't found his way in college. He broke Chris Weber's scoring records at Detroit Country Day before transferring to national high school power Oak Hill Academy where he set numerous records. Here's his write up - Legion Excited To Play For Zeke.

7) Herschel and MMA - For those of you that are fight fans and remember NFL great Herschel Walker, you might want to tune into Showtime this Saturday to watch Herschel Walker make his MMA debut in Strikeforce. I believe it's comes on Saturday night with the preliminary bouts starting around 7pm Eastern Time. Herschel has long been into martial arts and at age 47 feels nows his time to get into the ring. God knows you don't want to wait till your 50..... For a good article about him and his motives, click on "Bleacher Report" and check it out. There are some other good fights on that card, so the card does hold some interest, I'm definitely planning on checking it out. Maybe I'll do a live blog update for those of you that don't get Showtime.

That's it for now. For those of you on the West Coast hope you're enjoying more rain, and those of you on the East Coast, I hope you get 30 more inches of snow!

Bill

Would You?

That question has a few different connotations, but the context I'm using it in is "Would You Take Steroids"?

I see that the Angels have traded Gary Matthews Jr. to the Mets (Angels agreed to pick up most of the $23 million owed, leaving the Mets having to pay about $2 million) and it got me thinking about this question.

GMJ is a great example of why baseball players got caught up in the whole steroid/HGH thing. He was a decent major league baseball player, exceptional defensively but with little pop in his bat. He wasn't due a huge superstar contract guaranteeing him financial security for life, so (as the rumor goes) he started taking HGH, bulked up and increased his home run and rbi totals right before his contract expired. He became a "wanted" free agent and the Angels gave him a 5yr, $50 million dollar deal and, viola, he's set for life!

Now I don't know whether he actually took HGH, but all the signs point to it. His name showed up in an investigation of a bodybuilder showing an HGH package going to a "Gary Matthews Jr." and he showed up on the Mitchell Report. If you go to baseball-reference.com his numbers increased substantially his last couple years in Texas. Then he shows up on the Mitchell Report and his numbers plummet again (although in fairness to him, he suffered "injuries" and his play time was limited with the Angels).

Here's my point. If you were GMJ would you have done the same thing? It's easy for me to sit here and say "steroids are bad, they ruin the game, distorts the numbers, blah, blah, blah...." but being honest? I probably would have done it..... Here's the deal. It's one thing if your natural talent is getting a huge contract giving you more money then you could possibly spend in your life and you still took steroids (I'll use Bonds, Arod, Clemens, McGwire here as examples) ... but if I'm a marginal player back in the early 2000's and major league baseball wasn't testing for it and you can increase your numbers and get a huge salary, why wouldn't I do it? It's not like I was going to the Hall of Fame anyway and if I can set myself up for the rest of life? Again, being honest here, to me, that's a no brainer.

Now the people that took steroids I absolutely would not vote them for the Hall of Fame but I don't blame anyone for trying to "get an edge" and set themselves up for life.

So tell me,

"Would You"?

Bill

A Good Hire

I wanted to touch on this local high school football story. Santa Margarita Catholic High School, a private high school here in Southern California, has hired Harry Welch to head up their football program. This is a program that has been down in recent years under the leadership of former head coach Mike Jacot (38-38 over the last 7 years) but has the facilities and recruiting acumen to quickly rise back to national prominence.

The Eagles have had several standout players come through their program such as Carson Palmer (QB Cincinnati Bengals), Brian Finneran (WR Atlanta Falcons) and Kris Farris (OL with UCLA and the Buffalo Bills). This program was once thought to field some of the best teams in the country and they could be back there in a hurry.

With Welch, they're getting a coach who's won 8 Southern Section Championships including 3 straight with St. Margarets. He's the only coach in the state to ever win state titles at two different schools. He's spent 36 years compiling a record of 222-49-2, which includes a 46-game winning streak, a Division 1 CIF State Football Championship in 2006 and a second CIF state championship in 2008 in the Small School Division. In 2007, he was named Coach of the Year by the California Coaches Association, an organization that includes high school, college and NFL coaches. In 2009, The Orange County Review named Welch Coach of the Year. The Los Angeles Daily News recently selected Welch as the football coach of the decade.

I think this is a great hire and fully expect the Eagles to be back on top if not next year, then the following year. Along with hiring Welch, they also have a 39,000 square foot state of the art fitness center/weight room scheduled to open in March.

Bill

Angels versus Mariners

With a couple big name signings by the Mariners this offseason, a lot of people have been saying they're the favorite now in the AL West. The Angels found their 5th starter today by signing Joel Pineiro so I thought I'd go through and look at each teams projected rosters.

As it stands now (and this may change before opening day) here's the Angels roster (courtesy of MLBDepthcharts.com):

PROJECTED 25-MAN ROSTER
Starting Lineup
1 3B Maicer Izturis
2 RF Bobby Abreu: UPDATE 11/6 - re-signs with team (2 yr, $19M)
3 1B Kendry Morales
4 CF Torii Hunter
5 DH Hideki Matsui: UPDATE 12/14 - agrees on 1-yr deal
6 LF Juan Rivera
7 2B Howie Kendrick
8 C Mike Napoli
9 SS Erick Aybar

Bench
C Jeff Mathis
IF Brandon Wood
OF Gary Matthews, Jr
OF Reggie Willits

Starting Rotation
1 RHP Jered Weaver
2 LHP Joe Saunders
3 LHP Scott Kazmir
4 RHP Ervin Santana
5 RHP Joel Pineiro: UPDATE 1/20 - agrees to 2-yr deal

Bullpen
CL LHP Brian Fuentes
SU RHP Fernando Rodney: UPDATE 12/23 - agrees to two-year deal
SU RHP Kevin Jepsen
MID RHP Jason Bulger
MID RHP Scot Shields
MID RHP Rich Thompson
LR RHP Matt Palmer

Let's compare that with the Mariners:

PROJECTED 25-MAN ROSTER
Starting Lineup
1 RF Ichiro Suzuki
2 3B Chone Figgins: UPDATE 12/8 - signed to 4-year deal with option for 2014
3 CF Franklin Gutierrez
4 LF Milton Bradley: UPDATE 12/18 - acquired from Cubs for Carlos Silva and $9M
5 2B Jose Lopez
6 DH Ken Griffey, Jr: UPDATE 11/11 - re-signed to 1-year deal
7 1B Casey Kotchman: UPDATE 1/7 - acquired from Red Sox
8 SS Jack Wilson: UPDATE 11/13 - re-signed to 2-year deal
9 C Adam Moore BA#6 BP#8

Bench
C Rob Johnson
1B Mike Carp
IF Jack Hannahan
OF Ryan Langerhans: UPDATE 12/12 - not offered contract for 2010 UPDATE 12/18 - re-signed to 1-yr deal

Starting Rotation
1 RHP Felix Hernandez
2 LHP Cliff Lee: UPDATE 12/16 - acquired from Philadelphia in Halladay deal
3 RHP Ian Snell
4 LHP Ryan Rowland-Smith
5 LHP Garrett Olson

Bullpen
CL RHP David Aardsma
SU RHP Mark Lowe
SU RHP Sean White: UPDATE 11/12 - questionable for start of spring training (biceps injury)
MID RHP Shawn Kelley
MID RHP Brandon League: UPDATE 12/24 - acquired from Toronto in deal for B. Morrow
MID LHP Jason Vargas
LR RHP Kanekoa Texeira: UPDATE 12/10 - taken from Yankees in Rule V Draft

Some rumblings that the Mariners are continuing to look at bringing back Jarrod Washburn and that would help them (assuming he's healthy now), but after comparing rosters, do people really think the Mariners are better? I know this may come as no surprise to many, but I don't think so.

The Mariners have a great 1, 2 combination with Hernandez and Lee, however you need more than 2 pitchers. If they have to rely on Roland-Smith and Olson at the back end of their rotation, things could get ugly for them. Everyone loves Milton Bradley when their team picks him up but then everyone is happy to see him go.... He's a clubhouse cancer and has been known to split clubhouses in half. I like the Figgins addition (notice I didn't say signing as I don't like the contract) and he'll be a plus. Is this the year Ichiro finally slips? He struggled for awhile last year before getting hot and at some point the wheels are going to come off for him. They had a reclamation project in Aardsma last year and he threw great, will he do it again? Who knows.

You can do the same with the Angels (will Morales have the year he had last year? Is this the year Hunter and Matsui decline? Can Fuentes continue to close and not give Scioscia a heart attack? Can Maicer/Wood effectively replace Figgins and on and on). However the difference for me is starting pitching. I feel the Angels have 5 guys you can trust on the mound and fully expect to have a well pitched game and a chance to win every night. I don't think the Mariners can say that and in the end, that's the difference between these two teams. I think the Mariners have some nice pieces in place but they still have work to do. It'll be interesting to see what happens come the trade deadline if they're 10 games out. You might see Cliff Lee traded, then they're playing for next year.

I know I've left Texas out of this discussion but that's a debate for another day. They have ownership issues going on and things are up in the air for them. We'll see where that goes.

Bill

Bill On His Soapbox

I was cleaning out my garage this morning and found my old soapbox. I figured I'd pull it out and stand on it for a bit.....

Haiti

Obviously, absolutely horrible tragedy there. Me and my family are donating money to the Red Cross to help in some small way. I encourage you to do the same. But here's the deal. Why are our countries leaders saying we're going to commit "x" amount of money to help rebuild the country? Why is it our job? For goodness sakes, we have enough financial issues as it is.

Is the UN committing money and resources there? Shouldn't this be their job? Maybe they are and I haven't heard anything and if that's the case, I apologize and say great job by them.

What about Mexico and Venezuela? They want to be leaders in Central and South America, well here's an opportunity for them to step up and commit resources to help with the recovery of this impoverished country.

When I've posed this question to friends, the one response I keep hearing is "well this is what makes us better than other countries. We're willing to help others". I get that and to a point, I think that's great, however there has to come a point where we have to focus on helping ourselves before we can help others. Let's focus on getting ourselves out of financial ruin before sending a billion + dollars to Haiti.....

Ok, I'll slide the soapbox back in the garage closet to pull out again in the future.

Here are my NFL picks for the weekend:

Chargers over Jets

Cowboys over Vikings

Saints over Arizona

and in my upset, Ravens over Colts.

Best game? Arizona / Saints in a high scoring, back and forth affair.

Bill

iBill and other Tuesday Thoughts

I see where Suze Orman has her own iphone App. and don't see a reason why I shouldn't.... Can one of you software engineers whip one up for me, the world needs, no demands, iBill!

As to sporting news, where to begin?

1) NFL Playoffs - Good first weekend of games. Figures the one game I didn't see (Arizona/GB) turned out to be the most exciting. While I hate the Jets, I do like Rex Ryan and their defense. I love watching defenses take risks and do a lot of blitzing and that's what they do. "Bring the house Rex, bring the house"! I wasn't disapointed in my Patriots losing. Their defense hasn't been able to stop anyone all year so I held no expectations going into the playoffs. The Ravens played better and deserved to win. I think they'll give the Colts a great game. I kept hearing all week (or at least reading) that Philly would beat Dallas and I saw no reason to think it and was proven right. Dallas was just a better team, end of story.

2) Pete Carroll - It was time for him to move on and Seattle's offering $33 million reasons to go there. He'd done all he could at the college level with 2 National Championships, 6 Pac Ten titles and a record of 97-19. He's not Bear Bryant, Joe Paterno, Bobby Bowden or someone like that, you knew he wasn't a "lifer" (are there any still in todays game?). If you're an SC fan, be thrilled you had someone like him for 9 years and hope the University makes another smart hire to replace him. How will he do in Seattle? I don't know, hard to say. Unlike other college coaches that have jumped to the pro's in recent years, Pete has previous head coaching experience in the NFL and he was decent (33-31 with a couple of post season appearances). He knows what he's getting into. If he surrounds himself with some talented coordinators and can get some quality players on the Seahawks, he'll be fine. He's not Bobby Petrino stepping into Atlanta and not knowing what to expect..

3) McGwire - I'm glad he finally came out and made a confession. Granted he didn't say anything we didn't already suspect, but it's a step in the right situation. Do I wish he'd addressed more of the steroid regime he was on or if he'd taken HGH? Yes and by the sounds of it on talk radio, he's going to be asked about it a lot more. Jim Rome especially was going on about it today and how if he'd been asking the questions (instead of Costas), he would have been tougher and saying things like "he disappeared for 6/7 years, he obviously has been hiding something". Got me thinking (always dangerous I know), but doesn't Rome and McGwire both live in the same community in Irvine (Shady Canyon)? You'd think if this had been really bothering Rome, couldn't he have popped by McGwire's house to try to get an interview? Just a thought.... Will this get McGwire into the HOF? No, I don't think it's going to help much. Too many unanswered questions and by the sounds of it, he's left a lot out. Isn't Canseco looking better and better the longer this steroid stuff goes on? Almost everything he wrote in his book "Juiced" as been proven to be accurate...... At least he was honest. UPDATE - I've been asked a couple times on Canseco and I thought this article on his thoughts on McGwire were interesting: Canseco Thinks McGwire's Lying

4)Winter Olympics - The 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics are just around the corner and other than a few promo's on tv (mainly for female athletes...), I really haven't heard too much about it. We're basically a month out and the "talk" is nil..... Have the Olympics become so "blah" that no one cares about it anymore?

5) Sports Talk Radio - I'm finally gotten sick of it. Loved it for a while but now it seems that most of it is two guys arguing with each other over something. Guys, we get it. You disagree. We got it after the first 5 minutes, can we move on and take some phone calls? Please?

Future iBill

"Turtle" building a solid program

Well so far Zeke and Vanessa's favorite basketball team is struggling but that's to be expected. In year one of "The Rebuild", FIU has limped out of the gate with a 4-13 record. Have no fear though as Zeke has some highly rated recruits on the way and next year we should see a marked improvement. In case anyone forgot, my prediction for this season was 14-14 so they better get hot soon....

On a more positive note, the baseball program led by "Turtle" Thomas will be looking to build on their 34-20 record from last year. Their Freshman class this year was rated as tops in the Sun Belt conference and they return many of their top players from last year. On an even more positive note, it was just announced that FIU just received a verbal committment from the number 1 position player in the country (ss Manny Machado) and the number one ranked player in Canada (however isn't that like being Germany and getting the number 1 bobsledder from Jamaica???). For more details on these signings go here:

"Turtle" Grabs Another ARod!

We'll have more info on the program as they get closer to 1st pitch. In the mean time, as long as Vanessa's happy, I'm happy!

Bill

Breaking News Alert!

UPDATE - 01/10 - Apparently the Reds have made a last minute offer and look to be signing Chapman. $30 million over 5 years.

Details here: Chapman to Reds for ridiculous amount of money!

I'm Ted Koppel and this just in.....

"Inside Sources" within the Los Angeles Angels have confirmed they're going hard after Aroldis Chapman. Expect to see him sign by the end of the week.

Now back to your regularly scheduled show.

Bill

Baseball Hall of Fame

It was announced today that Andre Dawson was elected to the baseball hall of fame. Congrats to "The Hawk".

I'm ok with him getting elected in this his 5th year of eligibility, but I'm not sure I would have voted for him if I had a vote. I liked him when he played and he certainly had some great years (winning the MVP once and had 8 gold gloves), but to me he's on the fence as to being hall of fame worthy.

I guess I just have a higher standard of what the hall of fame should be. I'm against good players or marginally great players getting in. The hall should be for superstars or guys that were right there. We're watering this down, hence the reason why a guy gets barely 50% of the vote when they retire, but 10 years later get the necessary 75%.... It's not like they're hitting more home runs or winning more games the longer they're retired, so why vote for them now if you didn't before?

A good example is a player that'll be inducted next year. Bert Blyleven. He's been retired for 18 years and been on the ballot for this, his 13th year. He came up 5 votes shy in this latest ballot so next year, watch out... With the extra 113 strikeouts and 8 more wins he'll put up in his retirement it'll put him over the top! I joke, but really, why is he being voted for now when writers have had the last 13 years to vote for him and he hasn't come anywhere close to making it until recently?

Blyleven was a good pitcher for 22 years. Not great, not horrible. Due to the fact he played 22 years, he won a lot of games (287) and struck a lot of people out (3,701) but in none of those years was he ever considered "The Guy". He was a nice number 2 or 3 starter for his team. He was never dominate for a decade, half decade or even a year. Only twice did he make the all star team, only twice he won as many as 17 games in a year and only 4 times did he ever receive Cy Young votes. Doesn't sound very Hall of Fame worthy to me....... Here's a modern day scenario. Do you consider Joe Blanton a future hall of famer? A nice middle to back end guy in your rotation, but no one you or your team fears or tries to acquire in the off season..... And yet, that's basically what Blyleven was during his career. If Blanton hangs around for 22 years and wins a bunch of games should he be in the hall of fame?

Let me ask you this. Who was the top pitcher of the 8o's? If you're old enough to remember baseball back in the 80's, the answer's simple. Jack Morris. He was The feared pitcher of the decade. Most wins in the decade, a World Series MVP and Championship, received Cy Young votes in 7 different years and threw a no hitter. He's also known for having pitched what is generally considered the best World Series clinching game 7 ever, when he won the 1991 World Series with a 1-0 10 inning performance. Name me another pitcher in baseball history that's done that? I'll save you the research, there hasn't..... And yet, he's not in the hall of fame and actually received 118 votes less than Blyleven, a pitcher who he was far superior to. When the Detroit Tigers and Jack Morris came to town, you feared Morris and set your lineup appropriatly. Blyleven? No one cared........ He was Minnesota's number 2 or 3 pitcher (depending upon the year). And yet, Blyleven's going into the Hall next year. Go figure.... Using the Blanton scenario again, when the Phillies come to town, you're worried about Halladay and maybe Hamels, but Blanton? Who cares, you'll be happy the day he pitches!

Part of the problem now a days is the voters look at who's in the hall and then base their votes on that (in other words, is the player on the ballot as good as who's already in?). That keeps this watering down effect continuing as if one not great player gets in, then how can you say another not great player with similar stats is not good enough to make it....... So I see why some voters vote the way they do, but still it's a shame..... The Hall of Fame should be for the best of the best, not someone who was just good for a long time.

As to this years ballot, Robbie Alomar got stiffed. This was his first year eligible and some writers left him off due to 1) it's his first year of eligibility and 2) he had an incident during 1 season where he got in an argument with an umpire and ended up spitting on him... He's apologized multiple times over the years (and the umpire it happened to has forgiven him) but I can understand why some writer would say "yeah he's a hall of famer, but still, he can wait till next year"...). And yes, Alomar will get in next year as he's probably one of the three greatest second baseman to ever play the game.

So having said all that, here's my ballot:

2010 Baseball Hall of Fame Vote

Player	Vote?	% of vote
Andre Dawson	Yes	77.9
Bert Blyleven	No	74.2
Roberto Alomar	Yes	73.7
Jack Morris	Yes	52.3
Barry Larkin	Yes	51.6
Lee Smith	No	47.3
Edgar Martinez	No	36.2
Tim Raines	No	30.4
Mark McGwire	No	23.7
Alan Trammell	No	22.4
Fred McGriff	No	21.5
Don Mattingly	No	16.1
Dave Parker	No	15.2
Dale Murphy	No	11.7
Harold Baines	No	6.1
Andres Galarraga	No	4.1
Robin Ventura	No	1.3
Ellis Burks	No	0.4
Eric Karros	No	0.4
Kevin Appier	No	0.2
Pat Hentgen	No	0.2
David Segui	No	0.2

Larkin is someone else that this was his first year eligible and with his stats and background I feel is deserving and will get in.

I guess at the end the question becomes "what is a baseball hall of famer"? We all have different opinions but I'll refer to the famous 1964 quote by Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart's comment when asked to describe pornography: "I may not be able to describe pornography but I know it when I see it". I'm that way with a hall of famer, I may not be able to describe him, but I know one when I see one!

Bill