Category: Sports

Oh Captain, My Captain

By Blaidd Drwg

With a teary farewell, Jason Varitek finally hung up his gear and called it a career. You will get the few idiots in Boston saying he was a Hall of Fame player (not even close), the same way you had them in NY when Posada retired earlier this off season, but generally he did have a pretty good career …with the bat.

Varitek produced an oWAR of 23.7 according to baseball-reference.com. That is a pretty good number for a catcher. He had 3 pretty good seasons from 2003-2005, but generally he was league average or worse. The nice thing about the Red Sox lineup for the first decade of this century is that league average production out of your catcher made him look great in the runs and RBI departments. His post season numbers were pretty much in line with his regular season ones, so he was nothing special in that arena.

Varitek gets a great deal of credit for how he handled the pitching staff. There is no real evidence to suggest that a catcher has any impact on the performance of a pitcher, so I won’t say that he was or wasn’t a great handler of pitchers. Defensively though, he was atrocious at throwing out baserunners – at 23% for his career. In his last 2 seasons, baserunners were successful in 107 out of 128 attempts, or 84% of the time. The league average success rate is somewhere around 73%. That really doesn’t tell the whole story. Varitek was behind the plate for 850 inning in 2010-2011, or roughly 94 full games. Runners attempting over 1 steal per game against him is extremely high.

I don’t blame this all on Varitek; for years the Red Sox pitching coaches had an aversion to holding on runners, which lead to more steal attempts against the Sox then probably should have been attempted. Still, some of the blame falls on the catcher, and Varitek was really bad at throwing runners out.

Spring Hopes Eternal

by A.J. Coltrane

Last year, the HomeTown Nine made an improbable late run at the _____ League Wild Card and stayed in contention for the spot until the final few games.

The remarkable turn of events had fans and the media buzzing about the “return” of the HomeTown Nine.

After an offseason in which the club decided to re-sign _____ and trade _____, add _____ and _____ to the back end of the bullpen, sign _____ to serve as the team’s new first baseman while penciling in No. 1 prospect _____ in right field, the pre-season hype about the Nine seems legitimate.

_____ believes this Nine club could win 90 games, if they stay healthy.

And it is easy to see why.

Despite the loss of _____, HomeTown’s returning starting rotation comprised of _____, _____, _____, _____ and _____ still figures to be one of baseball’s best.

The Nine’s additions of _____, _____ and _____ this off-season— along with the emergence of _____— gives HomeTown a more well-rounded and deep batting corps than last year’s group.

The team still lacks a prototypical “big bopper” on paper, but with _____ serving as the team’s clean-up hitter, protecting both _____ and _____, the pieces are in place for a solid middle unit.

That is, of course, if all prove to stay healthy.

The key to HomeTown’s success will be if _____, _____ and _____, who are all overcoming past health concerns, can stay on the field and out of the trainer’s room.

_____, a future Hall of Famer, is expected to rebound from his career-worst season at the plate in _____.

I can’t help but think that _____ could be that legend and that any number of heroes could stand up to help cement the greatest storyline of the year— sending _____ out as a winner.

Oh, the beauty of Opening Day…where no dream is too big.

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It’s actually excerpts from a 2010 Atlanta Braves season preview at bleacherreport. Top prospect Jason Heyward led the team in OPS+, the team won 91 games and the Wild Card. Chipper Jones was right in predicting 90 wins. And Bobby Cox went out a winner.

I never read these things — even a blind squirrel finds a nut sometimes.

The Kiss of Death In Professional Sports

By Blaidd Drwg

Clippers Coach Vinny Del Negro is on the hot seat because of his team’s middling performance. He received the dreaded “vote of confidence” from the GM and owner of the team. From espn.com:

…coach Vinny Del Negro received a vote of confidence from Clippers owner Donald Sterling and general manager Neil Olshey this week and appears safe to finish the season as the team’s coach after reportedly being on the hot seat last week.

Receiving the “vote of confidence” is a close to a guarantee that you are hanging on by a thread in professional sports. Too often, a manager or coach gets it and is fired within a couple of weeks. My prediction – Del Negro gets fired if the team goes .500 or worse over their next 8 games (which is about 2 weeks from the date of his “vote of confidence”.

If You Don’t Like Soccer, You Are Missing a Great Game

By Blaidd Drwg

The Spanish First Division in soccer, better known as La Liga, boasts two of the most dynamic players in the world – Christiano Ronaldo of Real Madrid and Lionel Messi of Barcelona. The league has played 29 out of 38 games on the schedule and Ronaldo and Messi are tied for the league scoring lead with 35 goals each, a very impressive number. What makes that number even more impressive is that 35 goals is MORE GOALS than 11 of the 20 teams in the league have scored all season. Think about that, one player scoring more points than 11 teams. That would be like someone hitting 150 home runs in a season in baseball. Despite the two high octane offenses that Barca and Madrid poses, they are beatable. Madrid has lost twice and drawn 3 times while Barca has 6 draws and 2 losses.

The La Liga standings are so top heavy because of these two teams that the third place team, Valencia, is 22 points behind second place Barca. Madrid is 6 points ahead of Barca in first place in La Liga, which, with 9 games left, is close to being insurmountable, but they still have one game against Barca which could ultimately decide the title.
I mention this because the quarterfinals of the UEFA champions league matches Barca against AC Milan, the winner advancing to the semi-finals. It should be a contrast in styles between the high scoring Barca and the solid defense of Milan. The home and home is 3/28 at Milan and 4/3 at Barca. If you like soccer at its best, you should watch these two games.

Vegas And Some New Recipe Categories

by A.J. Coltrane

I’ve added three new subcategories as children to the “Recipes” tag:  Breads, Pizza & Flatbreads, and Asst Doughs. Most of the existing “dough” recipes fit reasonably cleanly into one of those subcategories. (The Grissini recipe wound up categorized as “Breads”, which I guess is ok.)

The Vegas gambling went fairly well last week, I won over 62% of my college basketball bets. The most interesting “miss” was a fun three-team parlay, combining Wisconsin to beat Syracuse (+150), Florida to beat Marquette (+110), and Louisville to beat Michigan State (+190). I bet $20 to win $324. Wisconsin lost by 1, which killed the parlay. The other two teams won. On the bright side, most of the games from the weekend seemed to follow the “script”, so that’s reassuring for next year. (Exceptions:  Baylor down 20 at the half against Kentucky. That, and Florida shooting 8-11 from 3 point range in the first half, then going 0-9 in the second half to lose to Louisville. I was feeling good about my Florida bets at halftime…)

Three fun MLB prop bets that we put a little money on before leaving town:

More Combined Hits, Homers, and RBIs:  Evan Longoria over Adrian Beltre. (Pick em). Beltre officially turns 33 on April 7. Longoria is 26. I’ll take the 7+ year age difference, thank you.

More Wins:  Jered Weaver over Cliff Lee. (Giving 1/2 win).

More Strikeouts:  Felix Hernandez over Tim Lincecum. (And Lincecum’s inconsistent velocity over the last couple of years.)

The Mariners Rotation – the 2012 Edition

By Blaidd Drwg

It wasn’t too long ago that Eric Wedge announced that Danny Hultzen, he of 0 minor league innings, was going to get a shot at the rotation, along with the other Mariners pitching prospects (or if you prefer, the Mariners TNSTAAPP – There’s no such thing as a pitching prospect). Well, with the exception of Ersamo Ramirez, who appears still has a shot of making the team out of spring training, Hultzen, Walker and Paxton all have been sent to the minor league camp. It makes sense, considering all that has happened since Wedge made the announcement that the prospects were going to compete in November:

  • The M’s retained Hernandez, Pineda and Vargas, so there were really only 2 spots in the rotation open
  • The M’s retained Beavan and Furbush, so there were already 2 competitors for those rotation slots.
  • M’s trade Michael Pineda for Hector Noesi.
  • The M’s sign Kevin Millwood and Hishahi Iwakuma.

I have a feeling that Noesi is considered a guaranteed slot in the rotation, so there are still only 2 slots open. I believe Iwakuma was effectively guaranteed a spot in the rotation so that leaves one open spot. Millwood is on a MiLB deal, so he is competing for the final spot in the rotation.

Based on that you have 4 prospects, 2 returning starters and a free agent competing for the last spot in the rotation. This means it shouldn’t be a real surprise that Hultzen, Walker and Paxton were all sent down after pitching just one MLB game this spring. I fully expect to see Ramirez sent down soon and ultimately Millwood named the 5th starter with Furbush and Beavan the first two candidates to replace anyone in the rotation. I really don’t see any of the young arms cracking the rotation until at least mid-2013, if not 2014 at the earliest.

Note – I wrote this before Wedge announced that the M’s rotation would be Felix, Vargas, Noesi, Beavan and Millwood. I would also be willing to bet that Millwood will be out of the rotation by June and replaced by Iwakuma. Either way, barring some major trade or catastrophe, I think you won’t see Hultzen in a Mariners uniform until 2013 at the earliest.

Seahawks Sign Matt Flynn

by A.J. Coltrane

The Seahawks signed Green Bay QB Matt Flynn to a 3-year, $26 million dollar deal on Sunday. I’ve been so wrapped up in the NCAA tournament that I didn’t notice until today.

The dollars and length seem about right.

The Whitehurst experiment didn’t work. Maybe Flynn will be a better answer.

I’m willing to consider about anything so that I don’t have to watch Tavaris Jackson.

What I’ll Be Watching, Saturday And Sunday

by A.J. Coltrane

A quick recap of the highlighed Thursday/Friday games and picks:

VCU/Wichita State (Pick Wichita):  Wrong! VCU won by 3 after leading by 10 for much of the 2nd half, 72-69.

West Virginia/ Gonzaga (Pick Gonzaga):  Wrong! Blowout by Gonzaga, 77-54.

Texas/ Cincinnati (Pick, pass):  Texas opened the game something like 1-10 from the floor and trailed by as much as 19, then came back to tie before losing by 6.

NC State/ San Diego State (Pick, NC State):  Correct. NC State was too physical for SDS and won by 14.

Virginia/ Florida (Pick Florida):  Correct. I have Florida as a Final Four team in one of my brackets. I had a rooting interest. Final score:  71-45. I was fine with a blowout.

Purdue/ St. Mary’s (Pick Purdue):  Correct. Purdue won by 3 in a game that was close at the end. 72-69.

Annie S. and I have three brackets each in the same ESPN Tournament Challenge group (77 participants). Annie is currently in 1st, 3rd, and 4th, with the top bracket in the 99.9 percentile. I’m 5th, 6th, and 14th. We’re going to take over the world! (Though right now I’m Pinky and she’s Brain.)

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Games to watch:

GP: Are you with me?

(8)Kansas St vs (1)Syracuse, 9:15 Saturday on CBS. (Pick, pass):  Just out of morbid curiosity. Kansas St is better (I think) than the general public perception. So is Syracuse.

(5) Vanderbilt vs (4)Wisconsin, 3:10 Saturday on TNT. (Pick Vandy):  Vanderbilt has a smart, veteran team that can really shoot. Wisconsin has their usual highly efficient and very slow setup. I’m rooting for Vanderbilt, they play an aesthetically attractive brand of basketball.

(12)VCU vs (4)Indiana, 4:10 Saturday on TBS. (Pick Indiana):  Can VCU do it again?

(5)New Mexico vs (4)Louisville, 6:40 Saturday on TNT. (Pick Louisville):  Louisville is fun to watch, and I have them as a Final Four team in one of my brackets. That aside, it should be an entertaining game.

Sunday looks like a bunch of dogs.

(13)Ohio vs (12)South Florida, 4:10 Sunday on TBS. (Pick USF):  USF smothered Cal in their play-in game, then smothered Temple — the halftime score was 19-15 Temple, then USF started making shots and it was over. USF is fun to watch and better than the public perception. If I were in Vegas this weekend I’d be riding USF like a rented mule, whatever that means.

I’ll be watching on Sunday, but I expect to see the favorites win most of the games. In the morning game NC State may be able to give Georgetown a challenge. The late game is Cincy/Florida State, which should be close, and ugly. Lehigh (they beat Duke)/ Xavier (defeated Notre Dame) should be competitive, if not easy on the eyes.

Happiness is a…

By Blaidd Drwg

…pint or 3 of Pliny the Elder on tap, a comfortable seat and 2 TV’s to watch Duke lose to Lehigh, Michigan Lose to Ohio and a hell of a finish between St. Louis and Purdue. Thanks to Noble Fir in Ballard for hosting and Mrs. Iron Chef for joining me.

Overall, this was one heck of a day of basketball!