Sports, running, and life

The sports Americans are missing

2009-02-15T17:53:00.000-08:00

If you were just to watch Sportscenter for all of your sporting news you would be led to believe that there were really only 4 major sports in the world and this niche little game called soccer. The truth is there are really several sports that have a lot more fans than any of those 4 sports that you will see featured on ESPN. I’m talking about sports that have an international appeal and not just a nationwide appeal in the USA.

I’ve had the good luck of being exposed to a few of them as well as some sports from other nations. I went to Australia when I was 15 and while I was there I was introduced to both rugby and Australian rules football. Both sports bear a resemblance to American Football but are different in more ways than they are similar. First of all there are no pads in either and secondly the pace of the game is so much faster. This makes them seem like sports that Americans should love but they have never caught on over here for whatever reason. My theory is that Americans love the strategy and idea of plays and schemes while the 2 main Australian sports lack a lot of that on the surface.

Rugby is one sport with a large international following very much on par with the sport of cricket. Now cricket was never a sport I could get into but in nations like India and the UK it has a large following along with a large number of former British colonies. Cricket bears a very big resemblance to baseball at a quick glance but is a much different game that can be played over multiple days. It most likely takes a much greater attention span than most Americans seem to have.

The popularity of Cricket and Rugby is dwarfed though by the popularity of the world’s game, football. No, I don’t mean the version of football with pads and quarterbacks. I am talking about the game us Americans call soccer but virtually the rest of the world calls football. It is a game that is played in nearly every corner of the world but gets a second billing in the US. Just for one example it was estimated that the 2006 FIFA World Cup was watched by a cumulative audience of 26.29 billion people with the final game being watched by 715.1 million individuals, that’s 1/9th of the entire world population.

Those aren’t the only international sports that Americans are missing out on though. Formula 1 is another sport that boasts worldwide appeal that makes the fan base of NASCAR seem small. Tennis and cycling are other sports that get a lot of international attention but very little press in the US. The reasons for these sports lack of American interest may have some connection to media coverage but there is also the fact that in a lot of things Americans try to keep themselves unique to the rest of the world. They are missing out on a lot of great sports by doing that though.

The Daily Run
Distance: 2.8 miles
Weather: 70 degrees, overcast day with rain threatening

The Oversaturation of Sports

2009-02-09T16:46:00.001-08:00

If you flip on cable TV at about any time on any given day the odds are you will be able to find some kind of sports event or sports related show within a few minutes of channel surfing. Whether it be one of the five ESPN networks, Fox Soccer Channel, Fox Sports network, or a collection of other local channels sports channels can be hard to miss. The odds are that they will all be talking about roughly the same thing most of the time too.

Is this a bad thing though? One positive is that in a world where we have wars and a troubled economy sports can create a great distraction from the realities of life around us. Do we really need 24/7 coverage though on every form of media imaginable? In my opinion there is an oversaturation but just like many things that can cause such a diverse amount of opinions multiple ways to voice those opinions develop.

I have to admit that I have a more unique relationship with sports than just a normal fan. My career is wrapped around sports and the existence of sports so I have an invested interest in it. Possibly that’s why I think there is too much sports in the media though, I never really get a great escape from it at work like most people. Sports just don’t serve as the kind of escape to me that it is for some people.

My main issue arises in a situation like the A-Rod scandal that is going on right now. Do we really need to spend half an hour of an hour long highlight show talking about 1 man? I realize Rodriguez is a larger than life athlete because of his contract and skill but there are so many good things going on in sports that could use some attention.

It’s because of coverage like the coverage of A-Rod or Bonds or Michael Phelps that I find myself tuning into ESPN less and less and turning to channels like Discovery or even Disney channel. They are safe bets to have original entertainment that will have variety and be something unique. I will turn to ESPN when they are actually airing a game because I enjoy watching sports I just don’t really enjoy listening to so called “experts” talk about it anymore.

To me there isn’t a lot that can match the thrill of an exciting live sports event or even an exciting game on TV. I’ve found though that sometimes the less I know about the situation around a game the more I enjoy it. I just want to go and enjoy the game for the game, not because the starting point guard called the opponents center a momma’s boy.

The sporting world seems to be on a mission to accent the individual and forget about the team. For example all you hear about is the Lakers while the Spurs are just a side comment. The Spurs are a great team, while the Lakers are a good team and you realize that if you can see past the fact that Kobe Bryant is on the team. I can’t say when the name on the back of the jersey became more important than the name on the front but I sure wouldn’t mind seeing it go back to valuing the name on the front.

These are a few of the things that the oversaturation of sports talk has just made worse in my opinion. We live in a world where if a station like ESPN wanted to they could air actual sporting events almost 24 hours a day but instead they generally only have sports from 7-10 every night and leave the rest up to their “experts.” I consider myself lucky that I have been exposed to a wide variety of sports and wish that ESPN would air a lot more soccer and also start airing things like Rugby and Aussie Rules Football. I would much rather watch a sport I had little knowledge about than listen to an old retired player try and talk with the idea that since he played he knows all there is to know about a sport from the front office down to the waterboy.

For the sake of not dragging my opinions out for too long I will wrap this up. I will probably go into each portion of this in more detail later since more is needed to full explain my views, hopefully that all comes off as intelligent and not just complaining. If nothing else I hope it makes you think a bit because we would all be better off thinking more and not just following the crowd.

The Daily Run

Distance: 2.8 miles

Weather: 70 degrees, a great Florida day

Notes of interest: nothing special just a nice day for a run

To Market, To Market I Go

2009-02-08T18:14:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I tried something new. I have lived in St Pete for roughly 8 months now. Every Saturday for a good chunk of the year they have a market downtown. I have never gone down there, mostly due to lack of motivation. Yesterday I thought I would give it a shot. The fact that it was a great day outside definitely was another reason that helped in getting me to go.

Also I had a real desire for a good smoothie and I thought getting some fresh fruit to make one with would be nice to have. So I hopped on my bike and rode the roughly 4 miles to the parking lot of Al Lang Field in downtown St Pete.

It was a great bike ride to start the day with. There was a cool breeze in the air so I didn’t get totally sweaty and traffic was fairly light so I didn’t get run over by anyone. If nothing else it made for a great day to be outside.

Once I completed my journey I was surprised by how many people were at the market and how many vendors there were. There were a few places grilling food and lots of produce vendors alongside several people selling different kinds of crafts and things of that nature. One of the best things about the event was that all of the vendors were local so it was all good for the local economy.

One of the first things I noticed was that about half the people had a dog with them. There were dogs in all shapes and sizes. There were the annoying little yippy dogs. There were a couple labs, a very large and pretty German Sheppard and one large black hairy dog that I don’t know the breed of it was just big with black curly fur.

There was a wide variety of people there too. Many that seemed like they were tourists that just wandered through while others were locals out to support the local economy and see old friends. The variety of people made it nice because you get to really appreciate the variety of people that live down here. Most everyone was older than me but that’s to be expected at an event like that. The market really isn’t a big draw for young 20 year olds, especially with Gasparilla going on in Tampa.

The third thing I noticed was the smell. I discovered as I walked around that one of the main places producing the smell was a barbeque grill. They had a decent variety of barbeque foods there and one of the guys working there had on a tux, I thought it was a nice touch; it kind of had a New Orleans feel to it with his outfit. There was a veggie burger and smoothie place, a chocolate place, and a few other places that I can’t remember right now.

After wandering around a little and seeing what everyone had for sale I made my way back to a small produce display. This set up had exactly what I wanted, pineapples and strawberries, my favorite fruits by far. Only 2 places had pineapples and these looked the best. In my mind I thought they looked just like you would expect a pineapple to look. The strawberries also looked very good and were grown just one county away so it made me feel better about buying them. One whole pineapple cost $3 and one tray of strawberries was $2.50. So in summary it was about the same price as the grocery store and they hadn’t been shipped in from some random South American country.

So I had made my purchase for the day and I jumped back onto my bike to head home. It proved to be a slightly more difficult task than the ride there because now I had a bag of strawberries and a pineapple that I had to balance on my handle bar. The bag had a habit of swinging and I had to kind of wind it around my hand to make sure it didn’t swing into my wheel. I survived the trip though and all but 1 of the strawberries did too. The one victim got a little bit crushed but I figure 1 out of 20 or so wasn’t bad.

I had to make a trip to Publix to get the last supplies for my smoothie and when I got back home I made one of the best smoothies I have made yet. I contribute a lot of it to the fresh local fruit that tasted excellent. Overall I would say I’m very satisfied with the market and I think I will be going back many times. I will make sure to take some extra money next time too and buy myself some lunch because several of the places looked really good.

If I have a recommendation out of this is that if there is a local market where you live go and check it out. If you can ride a bike or walk there it’s even better I think. The idea of buying locally is great for the economy and just makes you feel better about your purchase. So get yourself some fresh fruit and some other good local goods.

The Daily Run
Distance: 3.8 miles
Weather: 70 degrees, nice sunny day that was great for a run
Notes of interest: nothing notable

Running in the Rain

2009-01-29T16:08:00.000-08:00

Today was a much different run than most of my other ones. We had a cold front moving through this afternoon and with it came a good amount of rain. It started raining about 2 and is still raining as I write this about 7. After yesterdays good run I was looking forward to another good one but the rain made me hesitant. I checked the radar and besides a little more intense rain on the way it didn’t look like there was any lightning to go with it.

As I was debating whether to run or not it seemed there was some divine intervention. The power went out just about right after I clicked off the radar page. Well I’m not one to mess with signs from above so I pulled on the shoes, got stretched out and was out the door.

It seemed I had misjudged how hard it was raining because it was definitely raining harder than I thought it was. It was at just the right temperature though and it felt really good. I had no problem with energy today, possibly because I spent most of my day in the office so that didn’t use up much energy.

It took about a mile and I was drenched. It felt like I had about 2 pounds of water soaked into my clothes. The run was feeling good though and I wasn’t thirsty at all with the continuous supply of water coming down on me, I mean who needs a fuel belt when Mother Nature is doing the trick? So when I hit the point where I have to decide to either turn for my shorter route or keep going for the long one I made the choice to go long.

I’m sure the people in the cars that were passing me thought I was just all kind of crazy. I got a reflection of myself in a parked car’s window and I kind of thought I was crazy too, I was just dripping. When I got to my half way point the 2 pounds of water I had in my clothes felt more like 5 pounds. There is a problem with having mesh on the top of your shoes, when it’s raining it goes straight to the socks. The feet were really feeling heavy by this point.

Even with all that it still felt so good to be out there running and the rain just made it better and more satisfying. The run itself was pretty uneventful for the most part but it was a really good one. When I finished and got under the cover of the roof I just had to laugh when I had to actually ring out my shirt before I dared step into my apartment not wanting to get the carpet wet.

I hadn’t run in the rain in a long time and I forgot how much fun and refreshing it is. I can guarantee that the next time it’s raining I will be out there running if I can. If there are any runners or aspiring runners out there I recommend giving a run in the rain a shot. It can be very fun and is actually kind of liberating in a way.

The Daily Run

Distance: 3.8 miles

Weather: 69 degrees, a nice rain that got me soaked but felt good

Notes of interest: This month has been the most distance I’ve run since I started tracking my runs

A great run on a stressful day

2009-01-28T19:17:00.000-08:00

Today was one of those days where I really wasn’t sure I wanted to run. I had to stay at work longer than planned and it wasn’t the easiest day I’ve ever had so when I got home I just wanted to sit on the couch and relax. I did that for about an hour and got a little bit of rest in and at about 5:30 I decided I would regret not going for a run over the enjoyment of just resting and not doing anything athletic.

So I made a compromise with myself. I decided to run my shorter 2.8 mile route and I had managed to wait till the sun was going down so I didn’t have to worry about the heat as much. So without any more ceremony needed I put on my running clothes, got stretched out, and was out the door.

After about 5 steps I was happy I was out there. First of all because it was a great day as it transitioned into evening and secondly I started to feel the stress of the day slide off me. It started out as very much a put one foot in front of the other kind of run. Those kinds of runs are good sometimes though I think because it’s a true challenge to yourself.

By the time I had gotten about half a mile down the road I came to the realization that this was actually feeling like a really good run. Usually after several days of back to back running my body doesn’t want to fire like it does when I’m fresh. Today was an exception to that though.

Once I got to my turn around point I turned up my pace since I was running the shorter route and it seemed like I had plenty to store. This was quickly becoming one of those runs that makes me happy that I’m a runner. The stress from my day was virtually gone now and I could just go out there and finish my run using up all my energy reserves and really hustling out the end.

When I finished up the run I felt good and was very happy that I had talked myself into running. It’s a hard thing to completely explain but I know that the stress of the day combined with my lack of wanting to run at first made it even better. Now I’m ready for my run tomorrow with renewed motivation.

The Daily Run
Distance: 2.8 miles
Weather: 73 degrees, sunny with a somewhat strong breeze
Notes of interest: I ran later than normal which was a nice change of pace

The Joy of Running for Me

2009-01-27T18:17:00.000-08:00

I thought before I really got deep into this blog I should talk about what my motivations to run are. My motivations for running might help to explain why I do it and why I feel the way I do about it. I know I can get fairly passionate about running so maybe explaining myself a little will help to understand how it can get such a strong feeling out of me.

I have two main motivations that are in a close tie for supremacy. My first motivator is the fitness value of running. Getting myself in shape was the initial reason that I started running and it has definitely paid dividends in that department. The person that I was 5 and a half years ago looks nothing like the person I am now. I’m very proud of the affect it has had on my body. It’s pretty fun to go back home after being away for a while and not having people even recognize you because of how much better shape you are in.

The second motivation I have to run is the feeling that it gives me. I didn’t really get that feeling when I first started to run but the more and more I did it and the more I pushed myself the more satisfying it became. It’s actually a kind of addictive feeling that if I take a few days off I really just want to get back out there and run. It’s not always the same feeling every time either, it definitely depends on the length and quality of the run.

The satisfaction I get from running is actually a kind of a complicated feeling for me. A lot of it comes from the satisfaction of giving it my all and pushing myself. That’s what makes the longer runs the more satisfying ones. There is also the feeling of just being out and enjoying a nice day, kind of like the feeling of relaxing on a beach. I also get satisfaction out of the fact that I’m committed enough to it to go out their day after day no matter how I feel that day.

I don’t know if all that really explains anything to whoever might be reading this. Hopefully it gives you a little insight into why I run. It’s really one of those things that you have to experience to understand. I know a lot of the runners that share a very similar opinion so I know I’m not crazy. Either that or we all are, that’s an option too.

I hope this finds everyone well and look back here tomorrow for something new.

The Daily Run

Distance: 3.8 miles

Weather: 76 degrees, nice sunny day with very light breeze

Notes of interest: Another great day for a run hopefully these kinds of days stick around

It's Gotta be the Shoes

2009-01-26T16:01:00.000-08:00

I first started seriously running in the summer of 2003 when I was preparing for my first year of cross country my senior year of high school. One of the first purchases I made in preparation for running was shoes. Now I had no clue what made a good running shoe so I just kind of went into one of the local sporting good stores and let the salesman guide me, normally not smart I know.

This particular salesman seemed to know what he was talking about though because instead of guiding me to the Nike rack he led me to the Asics. Now at the time I had never heard of the brand but I figured I would give them a try. I wasn’t looking to spend a whole lot of money so I went for a lower priced Asics in the form of the GT-2120. I tried it on and it seemed like a good shoe that fit well so after comparing it with several other shoes that was the one I picked.

My GT-2120s treated me very well over the season and they were the shoe I used for both practice and competition so they got a good beating. By the end of the season I was having some pain in my knees but I think that had a whole lot more to do with the terrain I was running on and the fact that this was my first time running this much in my whole life.

Over that season I found that I really enjoyed running and the good feeling I got both mentally and physically, that feeling is subject of another posting I think. So I decided that I wanted to keep doing this but by then the 2120s were pretty much shot so I needed something new. I went back to the store I got the 2120s at and the salesman presented me with the Asics Gel Kayano 10. The Gel Kayano was the best shoe that Asics made at the time and that scared me a bit, the second I put the shoe on my foot though all that fear was gone. The support was great and the cushioning just wrapped the foot so well that I didn’t think there could be anything better for seriously getting into running.

The second thing that convinced me it was the shoe for me was when I took them off. My foot actually seemed like it was begging me to put them back on, that’s how good they felt. I didn’t need any more convincing and I bought the shoes without even trying anything else.

The Kayano 10s treated me great and got me through many miles. I went on to buy the Gel Kayano 11 when it came out the next year and was once again not disappointed. The greatest thing was the life I was getting out of the shoes. It seemed no matter how much I ran they just didn’t’ wear down. I felt like I was really getting my money’s worth.

When the summer of 2007 came around the Kayano 11s were finally starting to give in so I figured it was time for some new treads on my feet. This time I took a lot of thought and did a lot of research on what shoe I should get. I went to a well known running store in Miami armed with a good amount of knowledge ready to really find a great shoe to support my running habit. I had 3 shoes I wanted to try, the Mizuno Wave Nirvana, the Brooks Trance, and of course the newest Asics Gel Kayano, the 13th edition.

I gave all 3 shoes a try and a little practice run around the store and the winner became clear. The Gel Kayano 13 was the shoe for me. I think I knew it was when I walked in the store I just wanted to give something new a chance. So I laid down the $135 dollars and left the store with a smile on my face and a pair of brand new Asics.

I still run in those Kayano 13s and have now logged 264.4 miles on them after this afternoon’s run. That comes out to a cost of 51 cents a mile, a pretty impressive number I think. The whole time I have owned them I have not had a single injury and the shoes still look and feel great. I have no plans of getting a new pair any time soon and when that time comes I don’t know if I will even bother shopping around I might just go up to the counter and say “Gel Kayano’s in a size 12 please.” So for all of you out there swearing by your Nike and Adidas I think you should look behind the big name brands and try out an Asics. It can’t hurt to try and you might find you have a new favorite shoe.

The Daily Run
Distance: 3.8 miles
Weather: 73 degrees, sunny with a light breeze, man I love living in Florida
Notes of interest: A fairly normal run today, just a great day to be out there running

Reintroductions are in order

2009-01-25T18:54:00.000-08:00

After over a year away I have made my return and thought I would try and give this a shot again. Life has kept me pretty busy for the past year which is part of the reason I haven’t been keeping this up. I’m going to try and get things up and running again now though. My biggest problem has been where to start though.

I suppose I should just reintroduce myself. I’m a 22 year old guy who now lives in St Petersburg, Florida. I’m a sports fan and also a runner. I don’t know much about hockey but other than that I have a fairly good knowledge about all the other major sports. I’m especially passionate about baseball and soccer.

In addition to sports I have a great passion in running. I try to run as much as I can. If I could run daily I would do it but sometimes my schedule doesn’t allow for that and I need rest days every once in a while.

Running and sports will be the main basis of my blog with the occasional random tangent into other topics. I’m going to try and emphasize the running more than anything. I’m using this blog also as a motivational tool for my running thinking that talking about it will motivate me to go out and do it more often. Basically I just hope to write something that’s interesting and people want to read. I appreciate feedback of any kind.

I hope to get a posting up each day but their will likely be days that I don’t get one up for a number of reasons, most likely work. At the bottom of each post I will add a little thing about my running for the day. If there is no running then I will provide an excuse to make myself accountable. For the sake of not boring anyone to death on the first post back I will wrap things up. I hope you enjoy my little corner of the internet and look forward to any sort of comments anyone might have.

The Daily Run

Distance: 2.8 miles

Weather: 70 degrees, nice and sunny

Notes of interest: managed to break off the cord of my headphones clean off, so the cost of the run was one pair of cheap headphones.

Day 30: Tampa Bay Devil Rays

2007-12-30T19:15:00.000-08:00

The entire schedule of when team recaps will be.

Team: Tampa Bay Devil Rays

2007 Regular Season Record: 66-96

Cost per Win: $24,123,500 / 66 = $365,507 per win

2007 Season Recap: Tampa Bay has had a team since 1998 and haven’t really had any success in that period. In all but one of those seasons they have finished in last place in the AL East and they finished second to last the other year. Their best record in their 10 year history was 70-91 in 2004. In 2007 they finished with 66 wins and showed some progress on offense, it was more the pitching that held them back. They ranked 8th in the AL in both team batting average and runs scored with a .268 average and 782 runs scored. Pitching however ranked last in the AL in every major statistical pitching category including a 5.53 ERA as a staff.

One of the biggest standouts for the Devil Rays in 2007 was Carlos Pena. Pena led the team with 46 home runs, 121 RBIs, and 99 runs. This was Pena’s first year with the Devil Rays and also his best of his 7 year career. Pena’s performance earned him the award for AL Comeback Player of the Year and he also gained attention for the MVP award. Another player that had a great season for the Devil Rays was Carl Crawford who achieved a .315 batting average to lead the team and also he added 93 runs and 80 RBIs to make the offense very productive. Other strong contributors on offense were B.J. Upton, Akinori Iwamura, and Ty Wigginton.

The Devil Rays had 2 really good starting ptichers in 2007 but after those 2 guys things fell off suddenly. One of the good pitchers was Scott Kazmir who recorded a 13-9 record and a 3.48 ERA. Their 2nd good starter was James Shields who had a record of 12-8 in 2007 with a 3.85 ERA. A third thing the Devil Rays had was a solid closer in Al Reyes. He finished the season with 26 saves and only 4 blown saves. The majority of the rest of the bullpen didn’t fair nearly as well, 8 of their relievers who threw in more than 23 innings had an ERA over 7 which will easily make a good offensive performance be in vain no matter how many runs are scored.

Just an additional note is that this off-season the team in Tampa Bay has undergone a name change. They are now called the Tampa Bay Rays instead of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. The minor name change means a change to the logo, colors, and uniform. I don’t think the change was all that necessary but their front office staff apparently thought it would be beneficial to the team.

Key Free Agents: C Raul Casanova, C Josh Paul, 3 RPs; The Rays don’t really have free agent issues this off-season. They lose 2 catchers and 3 relief pitchers but none of them contributed all that much to the team in 2007 so they won’t be missed that much. Relief pitcher Troy Percival signed a 2 year contract and outfielder Cliff Floyd signed a 1 year contract. In addition the option on closer Al Reyes was exercised so he is with the team for another year.

Offseason Needs: The Rays main problem is in the bullpen where they need to pick up a couple more consistent arms to patch the hole they had in 2007. They also could use a catcher and a utility infielder to add some depth if any injuries occur during the season.

Prediction for the 2008 season: I actually like the Rays going into 2008. They do however play in a tough division and I don’t think they have the talent or salary to compete with the Yankees, Red Sox, or Blue Jays. They might be able to put some pressure on the Orioles for the 4th place spot. They do have to do something to improve their bullpen but the addition of Percival is a great step in that direction and I don’t think the guys that they have in the bullpen now can perform that bad 2 years in a row. I definitely think the Rays will at least improve their record in 2008 and will probably set the team record for wins, meaning they will win more than 70 games.

Day 29: Pittsburgh Pirates

2007-12-29T19:34:00.000-08:00

The entire schedule of when team recaps will be.

Team: Pittsburgh Pirates

2007 Regular Season Record: 68-94

Cost per Win: $38,537,833 / 68 = $566,732 per win

2007 Season Recap: The Pirates last reached the playoffs in 1992 and that was also the last season that they achieved a winning record. This streak was in no way reversed in 2007. The Pirates finished the season with 68 wins and ended up in last place in the NL Central and 17 games back of the Cubs. They weren’t particularly strong in terms of either offense or pitching. As a team they ranked 10th in batting average in the NL and 12th in runs. The pitching statistics weren’t any better since the staff earned a 4.93 ERA which ranked 14th in the NL and 13th or worst in every other statistical pitching category.

The Pirates got some good individual performances on offense. Their team leader in terms of batting average was Freddy Sanchez with a .304 average, Sanchez also had 77 runs scored and had 81 RBIs which both ranked in the top 3 for the team. The Pirates also got good numbers out of Jack Wilson who hit for a .296 average, scored 67 runs, and had 56 RBIs. Another player who had noteworthy stats was Josh Phelps who was acquired in June from the Yankees. While with the Pirates he hit for a .351 batting average and had 5 home runs and 19 RBIs in 77 at bats.

The Pirates starting pitchers actually ended up with fairly good numbers considering the overall record and the amount of runs that were scored for them. The team leader for wins was Tom Gorzelanny with a 14-10 record and a 3.88 ERA. The other 2 pitchers with more than 29 starts had 10-15 and 9-12 records. The Pirates leader in saves was Matt Capps who finished with 18 saves and a 2.28 ERA.

Key Free Agents: SS Cesar Izturis, 1B Josh Phelps, SP Tony Armas, RP Shawn Chacon, 3B Matt Kata, 3B Jose Castillo; The Pirates are losing a lot of guys. It’s interesting that they released Phelps after he played well for them in his short time with the team but that most likely has everything to do with the fact that the Pirates have a lot of depth at first base already and didn’t have a need for him.

Offseason Needs: The Pirates have some depth issues with their free agent losses. Currently on their depth chart 2nd year player Josh Wilson is listed as the back-up at 2nd, shortstop, and 3rd base which will not work out to well when they need to rest some guys. So increasing infield depth should be high on the list of priorities. After that the Pirates could also address some of their pitching problems primarily in the bullpen. Any major improvements will require some big spending just like many other teams near the bottom of the standing in 2007. I don’t see the Pirates doing that kind of spending this off-season and the talent really isn’t available in free agency to improve the team to much at this point.

Prediction for the 2008 season: I don’t see a lot changing for the Pirates in 2008. They just haven’t made a lot of improvements so far this off-season but they have developed some youth so they might be able to improve some. The Astros and Reds both look weak so the Pirates could very easily move themselves up to 4th in the division if things go their way. There is certainly some talent there but also several questions marks around the team as to how some key parts will perform.

Day 28: Kansas City Royals

2007-12-28T19:55:00.000-08:00

The entire schedule of when team recaps will be.

Team: Kansas City Royals

2007 Regular Season Record: 69-93

Cost per Win: $67,116,500 / 69 = $972,702 per win

2007 Season Recap: The Royals won their only World Series in 1985 and they have failed to reach the playoffs ever since that season. Their 69 wins in 2007 were their most since the 2003 season which was also the last season they had a winning record. They finished the season 27 games behind the Indians in the AL Central, a division they finished last place in for the 4th straight season. The Royals’ problems in 2007 were on both offense and in the pitching staff. On offense the team had a .261 batting average which ranked 11th in the AL. They ranked 13th in the AL with 706 runs scored. Their pitching staff earned a 4.48 ERA as a team which was 7th in the AL but they were 10th or worst in every other major statistical pitching category.

The Royals spend a lot of their money on offense. More specifically $11 million of their salary went to designated hitter Mike Sweeney and another $5.2 million went to catcher Jason LaRue. Sweeney only played in 74 games in 2007 and when he did play he only managed a .260 batting average, 26 runs, and 38 RBIs. Needless to say when a player uses up nearly 1/6 of the payroll the team expects more than that. LaRue had an even worse season where he played in only 66 games, hit for a .148 batting average, scored 14 runs, and had 13 RBIs. Needless to say the Royals aren’t upset that both these guys are now free agents.

The Royals pitching had mixed success in 2007. Their leader in ERA of those who saw regular action was reliever David Riske who had an ERA of 2.45 with 69.2 inning pitched. The best record they had for a starter was Brian Bannister with a 12-9 record and a 3.87 ERA. The Royals highest paid pitcher was Gil Meche who earned a 9-13 record and a 3.67 ERA. The pitchers numbers really aren’t that bad but wins were hard to come by due to the lack of offensive output. This is a common theme in the bottom teams in baseball; they have good pitching but don’t have the offense to support it. Another performance of note was by Luke Hochevar who the Royals drafted first overall in the 2006 draft after some controversy in the 2005 draft. Hochevar only appeared in 4 games and 12.2 innings total but he did perform well keeping his ERA at only 2.13 which makes things look good going into next year where he could be a key part of the pitching rotation

Key Free Agents: SP Odalis Perez, 1B/DH Mike Sweeney, OF Reggie Sanders, C Jason LaRue; I’m really only noting LaRue and Sweeney because their leaving frees up a lot of salary space. Sanders is a good consistent hitter and a veteran on the roster and the Royals will feel the loss of him especially after he hit for a .315 batting average in 2007. The loss of Perez leaves a hole in the starting rotation but Hochevar seems poised to fill that hole so that isn’t too big of a worry for the Royals.

Offseason Needs: The Royals are in a situation a lot like the Orioles are in with their division. It is simply a matter of how competitive do they want to be. If they are satisfied to simply just try and improve their record then they just need to make a few additions on the offensive side of the ball that shouldn’t cost them too much. They could probably find a lot of talent in their own farm system since they do have some quality talent there with some of the trades they have made in past years. If they want to try and make the playoffs in 2008 they need to do a major and expensive overhaul of their whole lineup. They still probably wouldn’t make it with the talent available and the quality of the Indians and the Tigers in their own division. So I think they just need to go looking for a couple good bats, preferably young ones that don’t cost much.

Prediction for the 2008 season: Well I don’t’ know how to put this lightly; the Royals are in trouble in 2008 if their goal is to make any major improvements. They just simply can’t make the improvements to gain much in their division. They might get closer to the White Sox since I’ve already predicted doom for them but besides that I don’t expect much. If things go well in 2008 the Royals could get back above the 70 win mark but the 80 win mark is a serious reach. Someone has to occupy that bottom spot in the division and the Royals seem like the best candidates for that spot in 2008.

Day 27: Baltimore Orioles

2007-12-27T20:11:00.000-08:00

The entire schedule of when team recaps will be.

Team: Baltimore Orioles

2007 Regular Season Record: 69-93

Cost per Win: $93,554,808 / 69 = $1,355,866 per win

2007 Season Recap: The Orioles had a pretty rough 2007 season and extended the streak of seasons with a sub-500 record to 10 in a row. The Orioles have also finished 4th in the AL West 9 of those 10 seasons including the 2007 season. They finished 2007 with 93 losses and were 27 games back of the Red Sox for the division crown. The Orioles offense was actually pretty consistent and as a team they it for a .272 batting average which ranked 6th in the AL. Pitching was however a weak spot and as a staff they achieved an ERA of 5.17 which ranked 13th in the AL. All in all it made for a bad first season for manager Dave Trembley.

The Orioles didn’t have a real offensive standout. The team’s leader in terms of batting average was Nick Markakis who hit for a .300 average and added 112 RBIs which also led the team. The Orioles most well known and highest paid player in 2007 was Miguel Tejada. Tejada was paid nearly $14 million in 2007 and in exchange for that he hit for a .296 average and 81 RBIs which was second on the team. In the field Tejada had 15 errors at shortstop for a .971 fielding average which isn’t that great but not really bad either so Tejada at least made an argument that he deserved that salary.

The Orioles spend a lot of money on pitching with 3 of their 6 highest paid players being pitchers. One of these pitchers is Kris Benson who earned a little over $7 million in 2007 but missed the entire season while recovering from shoulder surgery. Of the pitchers that did see action in 2007 none of them performed exceptionally well. One of the most obvious marks of this is the fact that they didn’t have a single pitcher with an ERA below 3. The team’s leader in ERA was starting pitcher Eric Bedard who finished with a 3.16 ERA and a 13-5 record to also lead the team in wins. One thing the Orioles lacked in 2007 was a strong closer. The team’s leader in saves was Chris Ray with 16. The team as a whole only had 30 saves in 2007.

The Orioles did make a big move this off-season when they traded Miguel Tejada to the Astros. I have already commented in my post on the Astros that I think the Astros overpaid for Tejada which means that the Orioles did a good job of getting a quality return in the trade. The player that I think will end up being the best part of that trade for the Orioles will be Luke Scott and also the Orioles got 3 promising young pitchers in the deal so they have improved their pitching staff and also added a quality bat to their lineup to replace Tejada.

Key Free Agents: SP Kris Benson, OF Corey Patterson; Benson would have been a bigger loss if he would have played in 2007 but the combination of the question mark about his health and his high salary really minimize the impact of losing him. Patterson will be a loss but his leaving does open the hole in the outfield for Luke Scott to get into the starting lineup without taking someone’s place in the lineup.

Offseason Needs: The Orioles have already filled most of their holes with the Tejada trade. They could use some help in terms of starting pitching but most teams have that problem and their just really isn’t the talent in free agency to make too big of a difference. Their offense is solid enough to stay competitive but if they want to be able to make the playoffs soon they will have to spend a lot of money just to keep pace with the Red Sox and Yankees in their own division. As an organization they don’t seem ready to do that so they have really made the moves necessary to return to compete for the 3rd spot in the division which I think should be there realistic goal.

Prediction for the 2008 season: The Orioles play in way to good a division to see too much of an improvement in their record. I think they can make it to 75-80 wins in 2007 but anything above that would be a very good achievement and exceed any expectations I have for them. They should have a close race with the Blue Jays for that 3rd spot in the AL East and I think by the end of the season they will have that spot secured but still will probably be 10-15 games behind the Yankees and Red Sox in the standings.

Day 26: San Francisco Giants

2007-12-26T20:15:00.000-08:00

The entire schedule of when team recaps will be.

Team: San Francisco Giants

2007 Regular Season Record: 71-91

Cost per Win: $90,219,056 / 71 = $1,270,690 per win

2007 Season Recap: It’s never good when your team is all about 1 player but that was definitely the story of the Giants in 2007. Everything about the team revolved around Barry Bonds and his pursuit of the career home run record. As a team they finished in last place in the NL West and were 19 games back of the Diamondbacks. The odd thing about the Giants was that offense was their big problem and they ranked 14th in the NL in team batting average and 15th in the NL in runs scored. Pitching was a strong point for the team with the team ERA ranking 5th in the NL but they were 12 in the league in saves as a team which tells you how many save opportunities they actually had.

The things the Giants have a lot of in their offensive lineup is experience. The thing they lacked in 2007 was consistent hitting. One of these veterans was Randy Winn who led the team in batting average with a .300 average. The highest profile of veterans on the team was Bonds and he did put up good power numbers leading the team in home runs with 28 and runs with 75. Not too many people really seemed to notice how the team actually did the entire focus was on Bonds’ chase of the home run record. Which did sell tickets but it didn’t really make for good baseball to watch.

The Giants pitching actually did rather well in 2007 but with the lack of offense their records didn’t exactly represent that performance. The team leader in wins was Noah Lowry who had a record of 14-8 and a 3.92 ERA. Another starting pitcher who performed well in 2007 was Matt Cain who had an ERA of 3.65 and led the team with 163 strikeouts. For all of this effort though Cain only earned himself a record of 7 wins and 16 losses. The lack of offensive support he received though kept him from getting the record he deserved which should have been at least a winning record. The Giants biggest addition in the offseason was Barry Zito and his $10 million salary in 2007. Zito finished the season with 11 wins and 13 losses and a 4.53 ERA, the highest ERA of his 7 year career. This was a big investment for the Giants and they certainly hope that his numbers improve in the next season.

Key Free Agents: OF Barry Bonds, 3B Pedro Feliz, SP Russ Ortiz, 1B Ryan Klesko; Bonds is the most notable of the losses in that he did sell a lot of tickets in San Francisco and there will probably be a drop in attendance next season. Those other free agent losses didn’t contribute with any sort of great numbers in 2007 but then a lot of their lineup that is returning in 2008 didn’t contribute that great of numbers.

Offseason Needs: The Giants have already addressed their one big positional need and that was in the outfield when they signed Aaron Rowand. Rowand will also be an added bat to the lineup that is definitely needed. The Giants should try and add another bat or two to the lineup if they can. They have the pitching in place to improve they just need to get the offense to help the pitching staff. It was reported that they were interested in signing Alex Rodriguez but his price tag was probably too high for the Giants to really be able to get him but he would have been the big bat that they needed.

Prediction for the 2008 season: The Giants do have some of the pieces in place to be a good team in 2008. They do need some more offense and it is getting pretty late in the offseason to find anyone that they won’t have to overpay for. With all this in mind I do think the Giants will improve in 2008 just because their offense really can’t be that bed 2 years in a row with the veterans they have. I think it would be a real reach to say that they will move to high in the standing but I think they will be closer to .500 but with the quality of the other teams in their division they probably won’t move above 4th place in the NL West. I think they can best the Dodgers for that position in the standings.

Day 25: Florida Marlins

2007-12-25T18:30:00.000-08:00

The entire schedule of when team recaps will be.

Team: Florida Marlins

2007 Regular Season Record: 71-91

Cost per Win: $30,507,000 / 71 = $429,676 per win

2007 Season Recap: 2007 was the continuation of the rebuilding process that the Marlins have been going through the past several years. This process began after they won the World Series in 2003 and they have made some progress in developing talent but their record has failed to improve and their win total has fallen from 83 wins in ’04 and ‘05 to 78 wins in ‘06 to now 71 wins in 2007. They finished the season 18 games back in the NL East. Pitching was definitely the Marlins problem and as a team they were last in the NL with a 4.94 ERA and second to last in batting average against.

The offense played great most of the year and some of their young talent really stepped up this year. As a team they hit for a .267 batting average which ranked 8th in the NL and they scored the 6th most runs in the NL in 2007. The team was led by Hanley Ramirez and Miguel Cabrera. Ramirez hit for a .332 batting average and scored 125 runs, leading the team in both categories. Cabrera hit for a .320 batting average and led the team with 119 RBIs and 34 home runs. The Marlins also had several other good offensive performances from a bunch of unknowns. Some of these standouts were; Dan Uggla, Cody Ross, and Josh Willingham.

The Marlins’ major problem was with their pitching, more specifically their starting pitching. The best ERA for any starter in 2007 was a 4.65 by Sergio Mitre. The Marlins best known pitcher, Dontrelle Willis, had a 5.17 ERA and a 10-15 record, much below the expectations for the player that took up a fifth of their payroll. The Marlins did have a good closer with Kevin Gregg converting 32 of his 36 save opportunities. The Marlins had a lot of different guys get pitching opportunities in 2007 so they should have a good idea going into 2008 of what their staff will look like.

One big piece of news this off-season was the trade of Miguel Cabrera and Dontrell Willis to the Tigers. In exchange they received 6 young prospects including promising pitcher Andrew Miller. This gets rid of a lot of payroll for the Marlins since Cabrera and Willis were $13.8 million of the Marlins payroll in 2007. The true outcome of this trade won’t be seen for a few years but it most likely did hurt the Marlins for 2008.

Key Free Agents: RP Armando Benitez, 3B Aaron Boone, C Miguel Olivo; Boone was hurt most of the season so from a statistical stand point he isn’t too much of a loss but with Cabrera being traded off they have a hole at third base. Olivo was a good defensive catcher but his offense was a bit lacking. Nonetheless he will be missed and they need to fill the hole.

Offseason Needs: The Marlins will have a very young lineup in 2008 but that is nothing new. They have depth issues at third base and catcher but at 3rd they do have some good talent starting in Alfredo Amezega. They need some starting pitching however and exchanging Willis for Miller will not solve that problem. That is the one thing that they have been unable to get out of their farm system but they might just be able to find some since they have shown a talent for getting young prospects to play well in the past.

Prediction for the 2008 season: I don’t think the Marlins will see any major improvements in 2008 but I think their record will improve some. Most of their guys have gained experience and they did look a lot better later in the season. They should better the Nationals in their division but I don’t see them getting any higher than 4th since I think the Braves, Mets, and Phillies will all be above .500 by at least 10 games. The Marlins would be happy to reach .500 and I think they can do that if they catch a few breaks. Either way they will be a good team to watch because it is a good way to see the future of baseball now.

Day 24: Cincinnati Reds

2007-12-24T14:35:00.000-08:00

The entire schedule of when team recaps will be.

Team: Cincinnati Reds

2007 Regular Season Record: 72-90

Cost per Win: $68,904,980 / 72 = $957,013 per win

2007 Season Recap: The Reds haven’t reached the playoffs since 1995 and they didn’t change that trend in 2007. They finished the season with 72 wins which was their lowest win total since 2003 when they had only 69 wins. In 2007 they finished the season 13 games behind the Cubs in the NL Central but they did learn some things about the young talent on their team. As a team they did fairly good on offense averaging a .267 batting average as a team which ranked 9th in the NL and their 783 runs scored ranked 7th in the NL. The pitching didn’t do quite as well and helps to explain their record. As a pitching staff they earned a 4.94 ERA which ranked 15th in the National League and their starters earned only 47 of their wins which put a lot of pressure on the bullpen the entire season.

The Reds had several good offensive performances in 2007. Adam Dunn led the team in several statistical categories including home runs with 40. One feel good story was that of Josh Hamilton who came back from drug and alcohol problems to rediscover his talent. He played in 90 games, hit .292, and hit 19 home runs. One guy for the Reds that you never heard anything about was Norris Hopper who served as a fill-in in all three outfield positions and also had several pinch hit opportunities. In total he played in 121 games and earned himself a .329 batting average. Somehow though he only managed 14 RBIs which seems a bit low for someone that had 101 hits on the season. That usually signals that their weren’t runners on base when he came up to bat but he also only had 16 extra base hits so the runners would have had to been on at least 2nd if not 3rd to score, maybe that explains it but I’m not all that sure.

The Reds only had one pitcher with more than 9 wins in 2007. This was starter Aaron Harang who finished with a record of 16-6. In addition Harang had a 3.73 ERA and averaged 8.47 strikeouts per 9 innings which is a pretty good number. The pitching started to fall off after Harang though. Bronson Arroyo had an ok season and had 9 wins in 34 starts. Another good pitching performance was by closer David Weathers who finished the season with 33 saves and only 6 blown saves. The majority of the rest of the bullpen didn’t perform all too well and most had ERAs over 4.90 with one closer, Phil Dumatrait, having an ERA of 15 in 18 innings pitched.

Key Free Agents: RP Eddie Guardado, SP Eric Milton; Neither pitcher had an excellent season but in Milton’s defense he was injured for most of the season and only had 6 starts before being put on the 60 day disabled list for the rest of the season. Both are losses in terms of depth though.

Offseason Needs: The Reds are pretty solid in terms of offense. They did trade Josh Hamilton in the off-season though but that does open the door for Norris Hopper to step into the starting lineup and hopefully he can repeat his performance from 2007. The Reds however could use some quality pitching. A lot of this is already in the organization it is just a matter of fixing some problems and developing some youth. The Reds shouldn’t really need to spend a lot of money on pitching since they do have a good farm system it’s just a matter of finding the right mix of guys.

Prediction for the 2008 season: I think the Reds can improve in 2008. By this I mean I think they will get closer to .500 but I don’t think they will be breaking their streak of missing the playoffs. They are a team that could surprise some people though especially in the NL Central which has been weak the past few years and hasn’t improved all that much this off-season so from that view they do have the right conditions to make some real improvements to their record in 2008. At the very least they should be an exciting team to watch next season.

Day 23: Chicago White Sox

2007-12-23T17:48:00.000-08:00

The entire schedule of when team recaps will be.

Team: Chicago White Sox

2007 Regular Season Record: 72-90

Cost per Win: $108,671,833 / 72 = $1,509,331 per win

2007 Season Recap: Two years ago the White Sox won the World Series. Things have definitely changed on the south side of Chicago. In 2006 they won 90 games but missed out on the playoffs and then in 2007 they slipped severely and won only 72 games. This meant that by the end of the year they were 24 games back of the Indians in the NL Central and way out of the playoffs. A lot of the blame for this poor performance falls on the offense who managed only a .246 batting average as a team which ranked last in the American League. The White Sox also were last in the American League with 693 runs. The pitching wasn’t all that great either with the team ERA of the pitching staff ranking 12th in the AL.

One big problem for the White Sox in 2007 was consistency in the lineup. The best batting average on the team was .278 by Rob Mackowiak and he only played in 85 games. The next best on the team was Jim Thome with a .275 batting average. Thome also led the team in home runs, RBIs, and run scored so they were really a one man show. I won’t talk too much about the bad offensive performances by the White Sox because there were a whole lot of bad performances which is very sad for such a high salary team. One example is Paul Konerko who made $12 million in 2007 and hit only .259. This is not an isolated case with only 4 members of the roster hitting over .260 for the season.

The starting pitching rotation did a little bit better but didn’t have that great of numbers either. Obviously wins are going to be hard to come by when your offense scores the fewest runs of any team in the American League but they didn’t help their own cause a whole lot. The White Sox did have 4 pitchers with 10 or more wins but 3 of those pitchers had 10 and the other one had 15 wins. Those 4 pitchers; Jose Contreras, Mark Buehrle, John Garland, and Javier Vasquez, had 4 of the 6 highest salaries overall on the team and their salaries were all between $9 and $12.5 million. So in that respect the money was given to the right people but I think that is overpaying when you pay around $1 million per win. One bright spot for the White Sox in 2007 was closer Bobby Jenks who converted 40 of his 46 save opportunities. This included a streak of 41 consecutive batters retired. It’s too bad the White Sox couldn’t have given him more leads otherwise he probably could have put himself into the record books with the stuff he had in 2007.

Key Free Agents: The one thing the White Sox don’t have a problem with this offseason is free agents. They aren’t losing anyone that contributed really anything to the team. Of course that means that they also don’t have space to bring anyone new into the team which could really hurt them.

Offseason Needs: Maybe it would be easier to say what the White Sox don’t need. They don’t need starting pitching and they don’t need to increase their payroll, they already have plenty of overpaid veterans and they don’t need to add anymore. So that means what the White Sox do need is to trade some of those veterans and bring in lower paid youngsters who maybe can hit the ball more consistently. Their offensive performance was just terrible this season for such a high salary and that needs to be fixed if they have any hopes of improving in 2008.

Prediction for the 2008 season: I really don’t want to say this but I don’t see how the White Sox can improve in 2008. Nothing has changed their other than their manager, Ozzie Guillen, has a contract through 2012 and the veterans on their team are one year older, which is not a good thing. So I predict more of the same in 2008 unless they get aggressive in terms of trades but the trade values of their lineup is so reduced now that they won’t be able to improve their youth much without getting ripped off. So the White Sox will have to settle for living with the bad decisions they have made in terms of contracts and put up with losing for a while. If I was Ozzie Guillen I would be concerned for my job. Managers are usually the first to go when a team underperforms and it doesn’t really seem to matter what kind of contract they have.

Day 22: Washington Nationals

2007-12-22T15:16:00.000-08:00

The entire schedule of when team recaps will be.

Team: Washington Nationals

2007 Regular Season Record: 73-89

Cost per Win: $37,347,500 / 73 = $511,609 per win

2007 Season Recap: The Nationals had the 3rd lowest opening day salary in all of baseball and when that is considered they had a fairly good season. They had the best record of the 4 low-budget teams in baseball, the others being the Marlins, Pirates, and Devil Rays. They played in the NL West which had 3 of the 5 teams with more than 83 wins at the end of the season so they played some pretty tough competition to get their 73 wins. Statistically as a team the Nationals weren’t strong offensively ranking 13th in the NL in batting average and last in the NL in runs scored. Their pitching was better but it still ranked 10th in the league in terms of ERA which is actually fairly good considering that the team didn’t produce many runs for them and they were in pressure situations a lot.

The Nationals had 2 very strong bats in the lineup in 2007. First was Dmitri Young, the 2007 comeback player of the year. Young hit for a .320 batting average to lead the team and tied for second on the team with 74 RBIs. The team leader in RBIs, homeruns, and runs scored was Ryan Zimmerman. Zimmerman also led the team in strikeouts so maybe he swung for the fences a few too many times. Other members of the Nationals that had good offensive seasons were: Wily Mo Pena, Austin Kearns, and Cristian Guzman.

The Nationals lad a consistent pitching rotation and only had one player start more than 21 games and in total had 13 different pitchers get starts. The team leader in wins was Joe Rauch with 8. Rauch is a reliever and he didn’t start a single game in 2007 so that should tell you how many wins the starters got. One high not in terms of pitching came from Chad Cordero who finished the season with 37 saves but he also had 9 blown saves but with the lack of offensive numbers by the lineup that is not surprising.

Key Free Agents: OF Nook Logan, 3B Tony Batista; Logan had good numbers last season but the Nationals have passed on offering him a new contract so far this off-season. He was named in the Mitchell Report and there are some big questions around him and it seems the Nationals are going to avoid that controversy for right now. Batista is a loss in term of experience but Aaron Boone has already been signed to fill his place so that loss won’t be felt too badly.

Offseason Needs: The Nationals really don’t have any needs that need to be filled anymore. They have been busy in the off-season signing several players like Boone, Willie, Harris, and Rob Macowiak. Their biggest off-season acquisition is Paul Lo Duca who they signed to a 1 year deal worth $5 million. They are a young team so some improvements should be made next season just through improvement and experience of the players on the roster last year.

Prediction for the 2008 season: The Nationals play in a tough division there is no question about that. That fact will hurt their record with the Phillies, Braves, and Mets all trying to maximize their wins against the Nationals in order to stay in the race for the division which will be pretty heated. The Nationals will probably be a better team next year but I don’t think it will really translate into more wins just better stats and more enjoyable baseball to watch. So that means they may get closer to the 500 mark but won’t get above it and I’m pretty positive they can plan their vacations for October with no problems.

Day 21: Houston Astros

2007-12-21T13:34:00.000-08:00

The entire schedule of when team recaps will be.

Team: Houston Astros

2007 Regular Season Record: 73-89

Cost per Win: $87,759,000 / 73 = $1,202,178 per win

2007 Season Recap: The Astros had a season that was mostly a transition year where they were just trying to find their place and identity in the NL Central. Overall they finished the season 12 games back in the NL Central which was one of the worst divisions in baseball. Both offensively and defensively the Astros had a down year. They had the NLs 12 best team batting average with a .260 average and were 13th in the league in runs scored. The pitching didn’t pick up the slack for the poor offense either. As a staff they managed a 4.68 ERA and had a batting average against of .273 which ranked 12th in the NL for 2007. The one thing I did find interesting though for a team that had such a bad season is that the Astros made very few moves during the season. So either they really aren’t trying or they thought that their personnel was good enough to be successful in the future. They quite obviously changed their mind in the offseason and pulled off one of the bigger trades in December of 2007.

The Astros regular starting lineup actually didn’t perform that badly offensively they just didn’t have any amazing offensive performances. Their team leader in batting averages was Carlos Lee with a .303 average; he was second on the team with 32 home runs and led the team in RBIs with 119. The team leader in terms of home runs was Lance Berkman who had 34 home runs. The offensive numbers fall off for the rest of the lineup in terms of RBIs and runs but the Astros did get a good addition from Hunter Pence the rookie center fielder that was added to the roster on April 28th. Pence played in 108 games and earned himself a .322 batting average, 17 home runs, and 69 RBIs. Pence is one of the young Astros that looks to have a strong future if he continues to develop.

The Astros actually had a healthy pitching staff most of the year. The Astros had 3 starters with 31 or more starts but of those starters Roy Oswalt was the only one with more than 9 wins. Oswalt led the team with 14 wins and the next highest win total came from Wandy Rodriguez with 9. The closer situation for the Astros was confusing most of 2007. Brad Lidge started the season as the closer and was then demoted from that role for a period of time then put back into the closers role. Overall he finished with 19 saves which led the team but it was his lowest total since 2003. None of the relievers really had an outstanding year with only one pitcher with an ERA under 3 and that was Dennis Sarfate who only had 8.1 innings pitched in 2007 after being acquired from the Brewers in September, he only allowed 1 run in his time with the Astros which gave him an ERA of 1.08.

One big piece of news that happened just recently was that Miguel Tejada was traded to the Astros from the Orioles in exchange for 5 players including Luke Scott and Dennis Sarfate. I don’t think this was a good move for the Astros but it is nice to see them trying to improve the team over last year. Sarfate was a quality arm to lose and Luke Scott has always been a reliable performer. The true quality of this trade will be revealed in the next 2 or 3 years, especially with the steroid rumors around Tejada after the Mitchell Report was published.

Key Free Agents: 3B Mike Lamb, 2B Craig Biggio; Biggio is a big loss because he was always a solid lead-off hitter and gave the team a lot of experience. He is officially retired now but he has earned it after playing his entire 20 year career in Houston. Lamb is also a notable loss especially when the Astros don’t really have anyone to replace him. The losses in the Tejada trade are probably greater especially with the loss of a young arm and a quality veteran outfielder.

Offseason Needs: The Astros have started to fill a lot of their off-season needs and have already signed 9 free agents; 3 relief pitchers, 1 starting pitcher, 3 second basemen, and an outfielder. In addition they resigned Brad Ausmus who was always been a consistent performer for the Astros. Most of the Astros holes have been filled now it is just a question of whether they got the right guys to fill those holes and whether they are worth the money.

Prediction for the 2008 season: I think Houston is in big trouble in 2008. I don’t see them achieving a better record. Tejada is a big name but his power numbers have been declining and it is yet to be seen what effect the Mitchell Report will have on him. I realize there are a lot of new pieces in Houston and it’s very possible that if the right mix is achieved they could have success. I don’t think this success is going to happen though because half the season will be spent trying to achieve the right mix and by that time the Astros will be in a hole in the division race that they won’t be able to climb out of. The Brewers are looking far too strong going into 2008 to have too much of a late-season slide which leaves the Astros out of the playoff race by a long ways and could possibly leave them with more questions than answers going into 2009

Day 20: Texas Rangers

2007-12-20T19:04:00.000-08:00

The entire schedule of when team recaps will be.

Team: Texas Rangers

2007 Regular Season Record: 75-87

Cost per Win: $68,318,675 / 75 = $910,915 per win

2007 Season Recap: The Rangers played in a tough division in 2007 and just lacked the talent to really compete with the Angels and Mariners. The finished last in the AL West and were 19 games behind the Angels overall and used 2007 as more of a rebuilding year than anything. One big move they did make was to trade Mark Teixeira to the Braves for a collection of younger players that they will be able to build their team on in the future. As a team the Rangers had a season where they were in the middle of the road offensively and on the pitching mound. As a team they hit for a .263 batting average with ranked 10 in the AL and the pitching staff had a 4.75 ERA which was the 11th best in the AL.

Individually one of the offensive standouts was Michael Young. Young led the team with 94 RBIs and a .315 batting average. Another good offensive showing came from journeyman center fielder Marlon Byrd who hit for a .307 batting average and had 70 RBIs in only 109 games. The Rangers were also getting strong offensive contributions from both Mark Teixeira and Kenny Lofton before they were traded in the mid-season for young talent. By the time both players were traded the Rangers were 15.5 games back in the AL West so they were ready to look to the future and grow the amount of young talent on the team.

The place that the Rangers spend the bulk of their salary is pitching. This was also the area that needed the most improvement for the Rangers in 2007. Their team leader in wins was Kevin Millwood but he had only 10 wins and 14 losses which is a really bad sign when 10 wins is the most on the team, Millwood also had a 5.16 ERA so it wasn’t just a matter of his team not scoring for him. One of the things that I found interesting was that the team leader in saves was Eric Gagne who was traded off to the Boston Red Sox near the trade deadline. The Rangers did get 3 players in the trade so it will most likely help the team out in the future and Gagne was in the final season of his contract. The Rangers overall did a good job of building their youth talent base in a season that was something of a lost cause.

Key Free Agents: OF Jerry Hairston, OF Sammy Sosa, 1B Brad Wilkerson, RP Jamey Wright; None of these guys are really all that notable and most won’t be major losses in the lineup. Hairston had a terrible season where he hit for only a .189 batting average. Sosa is probably the biggest loss only because he led the team in home runs with 21. He most likely would have been dethroned of that title by Teixeira if he hadn’t been traded since Teixeira ended up with 30 in total at both Texas and Atlanta.

Offseason Needs: The Rangers need pitching there is no question about that. It is a possibility that some of the young guys they brought in through trades could pick up for those holes in their pitching staff but that is always a big risk. Offensively they are in fairly good shape but could use some more consistent hitting but I don’t think they need to spend a lot of money in that department. It would however probably be a good idea if they use some of their money to bring in a starting pitcher or 2.

Prediction for the 2008 season: I don’t foresee a lot of really good things happening for the Rangers next season. 2008 will be a year of experimenting to find out what mix of the young talent they have will work best so the lineup will be consistently changing and they will learn a lot but probably won’t win a whole lot. They are most likely destined for last place in the AL West once again and will probably have a worse record in 2008 than they did in 2007. This will especially be true if the A’s can improve, which I think they will do.

Day 19: Oakland Athletics

2007-12-19T10:35:00.000-08:00

The entire schedule of when team recaps will be.

Team: Oakland Athletics

2007 Regular Season Record: 76-86

Cost per Win: $79,366,940 / 76 = $1,044,301 per win

2007 Season Recap: In 2006 the A’s made it to the ALCS before getting swept by the Tigers. It’s amazing how much things change in a year. The A’s were nowhere near the playoffs this year and by the end of 2007 they were 18 games back of the Angels in their division. The A’s had the same problems that a lot of teams under .500 had; not enough reliable hitting, the lack of an outstanding ace, and a plague of injuries. As a team they only hit for a .256 batting average which was second worst in the AL and their team leader for RBIs only had 82.

Offensively the A’s didn’t have any major standouts and they had a couple guys not live up to expectations. One of these players was Eric Chavez who hit only .240 in 90 games and he also had 46 RBIs. Chavez is the second highest paid player on the team and for a team that doesn’t like to spend money the A’s were definitely looking for more from him. The team leader in RBIs and home runs was Jack Cust who had 82 RBIs and 26 home runs, he also struck out 164 times which all together gave him a batting average of only .256, not exactly the numbers you want from your DH.

In terms of pitching the A’s had mixed success. Their starters didn’t have as many wins as they probably should since the team really wasn’t able to score runs for them. As a staff they had a 4.28 ERA which ranks 6th in the AL so not that bad. In addition they achieved something that most teams can’t and that is they had a starting rotation that was pretty unchanging over the season, 3 different pitchers got 34 starts. A lot of credit should go to the training staff for that one. The team leader in wins was Dan Haren with 15. Haren has since been traded to the Diamondbacks for prospects. Another pitcher I would like to comment on is Huston Street. Street is in his 3rd year as a reliever and found his role reduced this season which was due in large part to missing a month with a minor elbow problem. When he was pitching he posted 16 saves in 21 opportunities and he had an ERA of 2.88. Hopefully next year he can return full-time to the closer role where he posted 36 saves in 2006.

Key Free Agents: DH Mike Piazza, SP Dan Haren, OF Shannon Stewart; Haren is by far the biggest loss because he had become the ace of the staff. This is normal operating procedure for the A’s though and as long as they keep with their history there will soon be another unknown in the starting rotation putting up win after win, previous examples of them doing this are Mark Mulder and Tim Hudson. Stewart is also notable since he provided some veteran experience in the outfield on a team that regularly has one of the youngest lineups in baseball. His number weren’t that great though so he will most likely be replaced by a young prospect who will match his numbers without much trouble.

Offseason Needs: The A’s have salary space after trading Haren and losing the $8.5 million salary that Piazza had. In addition in June of 2007 they traded Jason Kendall to the Cubs so his $12.8 million contract is gone also. Kendall was the highest paid member of the team and was very easily replaced by Kurt Suzuki. With the salary space there is hope that the A’s would make some off-season moves and bring some veterans in but up to this point they haven’t indicated that they are going to do that. This certainly isn’t surprising and in my opinion a lot more teams in baseball should do things the way the A’s do and actually use their farm system to make their players on their own major league team and not just use their prospects as trade pieces. Anyways, the A’s don’t have a lot of needs as long as they can develop the talent that they have. Some more consistent bats would be good but that is rare when you are dealing with inexperienced players like the A’s lineup is filled with. Overall the A’s will be ok with the personnel they have and really don’t need to go out hunting for a big name or anything.

Prediction for the 2008 season: I think the A’s will improve next year but I don’t think they will improve to the point of making it back to the playoffs. The Angels have improved way to much this off-season to be dethroned and the Mariners will be solid again. I think the A’s will compete for the second spot in the AL West but in the end I think the Mariners will beat them out for that spot. I do expect the A’s to have a winning record or very close to it they just won’t be able to get the wins necessary to get to the playoffs.

Day 18: St. Louis Cardinals

2007-12-18T17:56:00.000-08:00

The entire schedule of when team recaps will be.

Team: St. Louis Cardinals

2007 Regular Season Record: 78-84

Cost per Win: $90,286,823 / 78 = $1,157,292 per win

2007 Season Recap: The Cardinals won the World Series in 2006 but they didn’t follow up that championship well at all. They finished 3rd in the NL Central and posted a record of 78-84. They ended up 7 games behind the Cubs in their division even though they were only one game back of the division lead on September 7th. They finished the season 9-16 which could have been worse but they won their last 5 games to make their record look a lot more respectable.

A lot of the problems for the Cardinals started with a beat up pitching staff. Their ace Chris Carpenter pitched on opening day but that would be the only game he appeared in all season as he was soon but on IR. Their other ace, Mark Mulder, didn’t make a start until September 5th and only played in 3 games because he wasn’t completely healed from the surgery he had the previous off-season. He was very ineffective in his starts allowing 17 runs in 11 innings, all 3 losses.

There were a couple bright spots on the pitching mound in 2007 though. First was Adam Wainwright who starred as the closer in the 2006 championship run. In his first season as a starter he recorded a record of 14-12 with a 3.70 ERA which led the team in wins and he was the most consistent starter. Another quality pitching performance came from closer Jason Isringhausen who recorded 32 saves and a 2.48 ERA; in addition he only had 2 blown saves. It’s a shame Isringhausen didn’t have more save opportunities because he could have competed for some awards if he would have had more leads to work with.

On the offensive side of things the Cardinals had mixed results. The biggest story of the 2007 season was Rick Ankiel who made his return to the majors as an outfielder after completely self destructing as a pitcher a few years earlier. He played in only 47 games but he had 11 home runs and a .285 batting average which is pretty good for his first time as a regular batter in the majors. Albert Pujols had another impressive season but it went mostly unnoticed because it is expected anymore. He finished the season with a .327 ERA and 32 home runs which for a lot of players would be an MVP season but for him is just normal so he didn’t even register in the MVP vote. Other notable performances came from Skip Shumaker and David Eckstein.

Key Free Agents: OF Jim Edmonds, SS David Eckstein, UT Aaron Miles, 3 additional outfielders; The Cardinals are losing some serious experience going into 2008. Veteran Gold Glover Jim Edmonds was just traded to San Diego for a prospect and Eckstein has already signed with the Blue Jays but the Cardinals have signed Cesar Izturis to replace him. Another likely loss is Juan Encarnacion who took a foul ball to the eye near the end of the season and will most likely not play baseball again if he is even able to regain full sight.

Offseason Needs: Even with a lot of offseason losses I don’t think the Cardinals are in that bad of shape. They could use depth in the outfield and some experience but there is a lot of talent there that could put up some great numbers so I would like to see them get a chance to show how they can perform. There are rumors that Scott Rolen is on the trading block and if he goes then there is a hole at third base along with the hole that already exists at second base. The bottom part of the pitching rotation scares me a bit but there is some talent there it is just a matter of whether they can get the full potential out of it. The one thing the Cardinals do have is a strong farm system and that will be to their advantage in 2008 when they see how a lot of guys can play in the majors. I expect a lot of call ups and send downs all the way through the season.

Prediction for the 2008 season: I personally would like to see the Cardinals get back to the playoffs but I don’t think it is going to happen. I have hopes that they can get their record above 500 but they just don’t have the talent and experience to compete with the Brewers but I think if things go right they will end up second in the division and only a few games back of the wild card but won’t be able to get a good enough record to take the wild card. I predict some improvement for 2008 but not enough to get to the playoffs.

Day 17: Minnesota Twins

2007-12-17T19:07:00.000-08:00

The entire schedule of when team recaps will be.

Team: Minnesota Twins

2007 Regular Season Record: 79-83

Cost per Win: $71,439,500 / 79 = $904,297 per win

2007 Season Recap: Not a whole lot went right for the Twins in 2007. After winning the AL Central in 2006 the Twins found themselves with a losing record for the first time since 2000 and many question marks in the personnel area. When the season was all over the Twins were 17 games back of the Cleveland Indians, the winners of the AL Central. As a team the Twins had a .264 batting average and were 12th in the AL with 718 runs. Their pitching staff put up a 4.15 ERA which isn’t that bad but when your offense isn’t producing any runs it is too high to win the majority of your games.

The offense was seriously lacking in 2007 and a lot of that falls on the high profile members of the team. As a team none of the regular starters hit over .293 and that was by Joe Mauer who played in only 109 games. One of most notable of the starts performances was Torii Hunter. Hunter made $12 million last season and hit .287 with 28 home runs. This isn’t terrible but for the highest played offensive player on your team you would want better numbers. Another player that sticks out is Nick Punto who played in 150 games mainly at third base. Punto hit only .210 in 2007 and only 25 RBIs. Punto his .295 last season so for the Twins sake I hope this season was just a fluke.

The pitching for the Twins wasn’t much better but that has a lot to do with the fact that they didn’t produce many runs and the pitchers had to work real hard to keep things close. Johan Santana is their biggest arm and he ended up with a record of 15 and 13 even though he had an ERA of only 3.33. This was Santana’s highest ERA since 2001 and his lowest win total since 2003. This all led to frustration for Santana and is probably part of the reason he is actively being marketed on the trade market. Carlos Silva has 13 wins in 2007 but he also had 14 losses. Santana and Silva were the only Twins pitchers with more than 9 wins. Closer Joe Nathan also had 37 saves and only 4 blown saves. Nathan has become a very good closer and would have a lot more saves if the Twins would have been ahead more often.

Key Free Agents: CF Torii Hunter, SP Carlos Silva, 5 other Outfielders; Hunter is by far the biggest loss but the Twins couldn’t really afford him next season, he has already signed with the Angels. The Twins are also shopping Johan Santana pretty aggressively had he will be a major loss when he is gone. The Twins have made it pretty clear that 2007 is going to be a rebuilding year.

Offseason Needs: The Twins have a lot of needs all over the place. They are really short on depth in the outfield so some young talent is needed if they are truly in rebuilding mode. There is also a hole at second base. The Twins have added Mike Lamb and Adam Everett to solidify the rest of their infield and hopefully give that bad offense a boost.

Prediction for the 2008 season: Things don’t look good for the Twins. The Tigers are going to be great next season and the Indians will also have a good record. That means that the Twins will most likely be getting beat up a lot this season. The Royals will be bad again so the Twins will get some wins from them but it would be a small miracle for the Twins to have a winning record. With the right young talent thought the Twins could be a fun team to watch but I don’t think they will get a lot of wins.

Day 16: Los Angeles Dodgers

2007-12-16T15:40:00.000-08:00

The entire schedule of when team recaps will be.

Team: Los Angeles Dodgers

2007 Regular Season Record: 82-80

Cost per Win: $108,454,524 / 82 = $1,322,616 per win

2007 Season Recap: In 2007 the Dodgers had the same problem that the Blue Jays had. This being that they were in the wrong division. They play in the NL West a division that includes the Diamondbacks, Padres, and Rockies who all had very good seasons. This made things difficult for the Dodgers but they really didn’t help themselves either. They ended the season 8 games back in their division and 7.5 games back of the wild card.

The Dodgers had a solid season offensively. None of the regular starters had amazing offensive outputs but there also really wasn’t anyone with a bad season. The team leader in batting average of the regular starters was Jeff Kent with a .302 average and he also led the team with 20 home runs. The contributions of right fielder Matt Kemp and first baseman James Loney should be noted. Kemp played in 98 games and hit .342 and had 10 home runs. Loney played in 96 games and hit .331 with 15 home runs. This was the first year in the majors for both of these guys and their performances definitely make the future look bright for the Dodgers.

As is often the case in the majors the lack of good pitching from top to bottom in the rotation hurt the Dodgers. It seems that for a team to be successful they need to have that ace that puts up about 18 wins and a second guy that has about 15 wins on the season. This didn’t happen for the Dodgers. Their team leader in wins was Brad Penny with 16 then next was a tie with 12 wins for Derek Lowe and Chad Billingsley. After those 3 the Dodgers didn’t have a set rotation and had 10 players get 5 or more starters for the season, Billingsley even was in the bullpen for part of the season so a lack of continuity there hurts the team’s performance a lot at a position that relies a lot on chemistry with the catcher.

Key Free Agents: C Mike Lieberthal, SP David Wells, SP Randy Wolf, SP Mark Hendrickson, 1B Mark Sweeney; The loss of 3 starting pitchers is alarming especially this off-season where the talent available is so minimal. The loss of Mike Sweeney is a positive since it opens the door for James Loney to be the regular starter and the way he played last season he has earned it.

Offseason Needs: There is no question what the biggest need for the Dodgers is and that is starting pitching. For their sake I hope they have some people in their farm system because the free-agent market is not good. The Dodgers have already signed Andruw Jones and starting pitcher Chan Ho Park. So they have started to build the roster back up. Also I can’t end this section without mentioning the biggest addition to the Dodgers this off-season and that was the hiring of manager Joe Torre. What impact Torre will have has yet to be seen but it certainly can’t hurt their results in 2008.

Prediction for the 2008 season: If the Dodgers can improve their pitching rotation they can have a successful season next year. This will be tough but they seem to be willing to spend the money to get the talent to help the team get better so there is a chance they can get that done. Their lineup will be solid next season as long as Andruw Jones makes a rebound and performs up to the big contract he signed this offseason. I however don’t think that the Dodgers can improve enough to win the division so they will have to fight for the wild card. I don’t think they will be able to win that fight and they will be on the outside looking in for another year.

Day 15: Toronto Blue Jays

2007-12-15T14:09:00.000-08:00

The entire schedule of when team recaps will be.

Team: Toronto Blue Jays

2007 Regular Season Record: 83-79

Cost per Win: $81,942,800 / 83 = $987,262 per win

2007 Season Recap: I’ll start this off by honestly saying that I don’t know much about the Blue Jays and I don’t think I saw them play a single time last season. They really aren’t on TV at all and they just kind of get lost in the mix when they are in a division with the Yankees and the Red Sox. I do however have plenty of stats at my disposal and I will try my best to paint a good picture of the Blue Jays 2007 season.

The Blue Jays are in a bad place to try and build a team and succeed. When you play against the teams with the 2 highest salaries in baseball every year as many times as they do you are in trouble. The Jays have stepped up their own spending to try and stay competitive but it hasn’t translated into a playoff appearance since 1993 when they won the World Series. In 2007 they ended up 13 games back in the AL East and 11 games back of the wild card berth.

The majority of the Blue Jays salary goes to starting pitching and they had mixed success with their starters in 2007. Their highest paid player, A.J. Burnett, went only 10-8 but missed a portion of the season due to injury; he also had a 3.75 ERA. Their second highest salary earner was another starting pitcher, Roy Halladay. Halladay led the team in wins with 16 and also had an ERA of 3.71.

Offense was something of a problem for the Jays. They didn’t have anyone hit over .300 and Frank Thomas led the team in home runs with 26. The Jays third baseman Troy Glaus made $10.5 million in 2007 and in exchange for that he hit .262 and had 20 home runs. For that amount of money the Jays would certainly like better offensive numbers. Overall the Blue Jays averaged 4.65 runs per game which is a pretty decent number but for comparison the Red Sox averaged 5.35 runs per game. The numbers wouldn’t be that bad since they did post a pretty good record it’s just a matter that they need even better numbers to keep up in that division.

Key Free Agents: SP Josh Towers; To call Towers a key free agent is a serious reach. Last season he had a record of 5 wins and 10 losses and had a 5.38 ERA so he won’t be missed too much they will just need another arm to take his place in the starting rotation. Other than Towers the Blue Jays didn’t actually lose anyone besides a utility infielder.

Offseason Needs: The Jays don’t have any major off-season needs unless they want to spend some big bucks to try and become contenders in their division. They have already added David Eckstein to their roster so he will provide a solid leadoff hitter and a good defensive player at short stop. If they want to contend they will have to spend a good chunk of money on big time bats. If they don’t want to go that route then they need to add a 3rd and 4th pitcher in the rotation that can shut down opposing line-ups. Both routes will be very expensive and the addition of some bats would be a much easier way to do that.

Prediction for the 2008 season: It will be more of the same next season for the Blue Jays. They will beat up on the Tampa Bay Rays and the other teams in the AL they play because they do have a good lineup but it isn’t good enough to win a playoff spot in the AL next season. I expect a similar record as this year and they will finish 3rd in the AL East and be watching the playoffs in Toronto.

Day 14: Milwaukee Brewers

2007-12-14T14:15:00.000-08:00

The entire schedule of when team recaps will be.

Team: Milwaukee Brewers

2007 Regular Season Record: 83-79

Cost per Win: $70,986,500 / 83 = $855,259 per win

2007 Season Recap: The Brewers had a season that exceeded expectations. They led the NL Central for a large part of the season and just came up short in the end but the expectations going into the season were nowhere near that. In the end they found themselves 2 games back of the Cubs in their division and 6.5 games back in the Wild Card race. They played a very exciting offensive game and led the majors in home runs in 2007 by hitting 18 more than the Phillies. The on-field power of the Brewers made for a good team to watch and that led to increased popularity of the team even though they played in a small-market.

The Brewers had several players that had incredible seasons. First of all was Prince Fielder who was in the running for NL MVP but in the end he lost out to Jimmy Rollins who put up better all around numbers. Fielder finished the season with a .288 batting average, 50 home runs, and 119 RBIs. Another very notable performance was from Ryan Braun who won the Rookie of the Year award after being added to the roster on May 25th for the first time in his career. Braun came right out of the gate performing well and hit .382 in June which was his first full month in the majors. Braun’s totals at the end of the season were a .324 batting average, 34 home runs, and 97 RBIs all while playing in only 113 games. Other strong performances for the Brewers came from Corey Hart, J.J. Hardy, and Francisco Cordero.

The Brewers didn’t have any major underperformers. Pitching wasn’t necessarily a weak spot but they didn’t have any one strong performance. The most wins they had from any one person were 12 by Jeff Suppan, Dave Bush, and Ben Sheets. Claudio Vargas also added 11 wins so they had a fairly consistent staff. It should also be noted that Sheets only started in 24 games after getting injured early in the season. Sheets is the highest paid of any of the Brewers so they look for solid outings from him and they certainly hope that he won’t have injury problems next year.

Key Free Agents: RP Francisco Cordero and 3 additional relief pitchers; Cordero is a major loss since he was the teams closer last season and had 44 saves and only 7 blown saves. The loss of 3 other relief pitchers creates a problem for the Brewers but they have already started working on increasing the bullpen depth by already adding 2 relief pitchers including Eric Gagne who they are gambling will regain his form. I question that move some but in the right situation players can turn their careers around and Gagne definitely needs to do that if the Brewers are going to make the playoffs in 2008.

Offseason Needs: Well personally I think the Brewers need to bring in another closer but they have already dedicated $10 million dollars to Gagne for next season so that is very unlikely. Besides the needs in the bullpen there aren’t any major holes in the starting roster. They could use a couple outfielders that can hit better besides Corey Hart the other 2 starts hit .254 and .235 on the season. So that is a need that could be addressed but isn’t something that they need to use a lot of money to fill that need.

Prediction for the 2008 season: I like the Brewers’ chances in 2008. They surprised a lot of people last year with their performance and I think they will only build on that. I think they go to the top of the NL Central early in the season and stay there all the way to the end. The division is something weak so I don’t see them getting a lot of pressure from the other teams. The Brewers then have a team that is built to perform in the playoffs. The power in their lineup will help them greatly in the postseason and I think they will contend for the NL spot in the World Series. I’m a fan of the Brewers so I would personally like to see them make it all the way but the Rockies also look good so that could create a very good matchup of young players and 2 exciting teams to watch if they end up going head to head.

Day 13: Atlanta Braves

2007-12-13T07:08:00.000-08:00

The entire schedule of when team recaps will be.

Team: Atlanta Braves

2007 Regular Season Record: 84-78

Cost per Win: $87,290,833 / 84 = $1,039,176 per win

2007 Season Recap: Well the Braves had a bit of an up and down season. They ended the season 5 games back in the NL East and 5.5 games back in the NL Wild Card chase. They did however have a winning record which is always a good accomplishment in baseball but not what a team that has historically been in the playoffs with regularity is looking for. A lot of the Braves shortcomings came from the lack of performances by some of their high paid veterans. At the same time they had some great showings from young talent that makes it seem that the Braves have a good future.

Not all of the veterans underperformed though. One great performance in 2007 came from Chipper Jones. He led the team in batting average, home runs, and runs; .337, 29, and 108 respectively. Another strong performance came from Jeff Francoeur who led the team in RBIs with 105. Edgar Renteria also had a strong season hitting for a .332 average and scoring 87 runs. A third positive was the mid season addition of Mark Teixeira from the Rangers. As a member of the Braves he hit .317 and had 17 home runs in only 54 games.

Now on to the bad, the top salary earner for the Braves last year was Mike Hampton who made $14.5 million. The only catch with Hampton is that he hasn’t pitched for the Braves since 2005 due to a long series of injuries. He’s been attempting to rehab but it was reported that he strained his hamstring this winter while playing in the Mexican winter leagues so it doesn’t look like that trend will change any. The second player that got paid a lot to underperform was Andruw Jones and his $14 million salary. Most notably was the fact that Jones only hit .222 and that went up quite a bit when he got hot at the end of the season. He did have 26 home runs on the season which was second best on the team but maybe he needs to focus more on just getting hits and not trying to hit it out of the ballpark. Jones is now gone anyway so the Braves won’t have to worry about him underperforming anymore, he can do that for the Dodgers now.

Key Free Agents: OF Andruw Jones, SS Edgar Renteria, RP Octavio Dotel; Renteria isn’t actually a free agent this off-season but he was traded away to the Tigers very early in the off-season and I think he will be a major loss. Andruw Jones has also moved on as I mentioned before. The Braves really don’t lose many key guys and they have already brought Tom Glavine back so this team has a promising future ahead of them.

Offseason Needs: One of the major off-season needs is at short stop to fill the hole left by Renteria. Currently rookie Yunel Escobar is in the starting role on the depth chart but he is very inexperienced, he did however hit .326 in limited action last season so there is hope that he could pan out to be a solid talent. Center field is another question mark but the Braves have historically been good at finding young guys who perform well out there so I’m not too concerned about that position. They have definitely solidified the pitching rotation with the return of Glavine and assuming Hampton can actually pitch this year they will be solid from top to bottom so that isn’t a need.

Prediction for the 2008 season: I think next season will be a lot better for the Braves. They will contend for the NL East in a close race with the Phillies and Mets and I’d like to think that the Braves will come out on top. This is an organization that does things right and doesn’t just go out and buy players, they actually develop talent. For this reason I’m rooting for them and would definitely like to see them revisit the playoffs after a couple of years off. They probably wouldn’t get through the first round of the playoffs but you never know what could happen once a team makes it to the playoffs.

Day 12: Chicago Cubs

2007-12-07T15:06:00.000-08:00

The entire schedule for when team recaps will be

Team: Chicago Cubs

2007 Regular Season Record: 85-77

2007 Postseason Record: 0-3; lost in NLDS

Cost per Win: $99,670,332 / 85 = $1,172,592 per win

2007 Season Recap: The Cubs spent a whole lot of money in 2007 and weren’t really rewarded for it. A larger portion of this money went to signing Alfonso Soriano and resigning Carlos Zambrano. The biggest salary on the payroll though belongs to Derek Lee who is also their best player so I’m not going to complain about that. Anyways, the Cubs won the NL central which was by far the worst division in baseball this year. The Cubs got a scare from the Brewers and for a while even the Cardinals were in the race. In the end the Cubs performed well enough to make the playoffs. They had a short stay though as they got swept by the Diamondbacks quite convincingly.

I have to give the Cubs credit; they do pay the most money to their best performers. Derek Lee had a very good season and hit .317 with 22 home runs. Soriano has 33 home runs on the season and hit .299 so his money was deserved also, that is if anyone deserves that much money to play sports. Zambrano also had a good season with 18 wins.

The Cubs were a team that didn’t have really any bad spots in their line-up but also beyond the top 3 offensive players didn’t have any outstanding play either. On the pitching mound they Cubs were also solid with the 4 regular starters all finishing with 11 or more wins. The Cubs will be looking to improve on the positives this season and to better in other areas. There is some definite possibilities with this team if they can get things clicking.

Key Free Agents: OF Cliff Floyd, SP Steve Trachsel; From a contribution stand point Floyd is a loss. He has always been a solid bat and has performed well in his career and is a good veteran presence that the Cubs might miss. The loss of Trachsel is notable from a depth standpoint. If the Cubs fail to sign anyone else they will be forced to put Mark Prior back into the starting rotation and that is a serious risk at this point.

Offseason Needs: The Cubs biggest need is at pitcher to secure the second half of the starting rotation. Another need is at Catcher and they also could use some help in the outfield. This is scary with such a high payroll already but the needs are there and must be addressed if they want to push deep into the playoffs.

Prediction for the 2008 season: The Cubs will definitely be competitive in the NL central. Not because they are that great of a team but more because the NL central hasn’t gotten any better. This could all change before the season starts but one of the teams in that division needs to take steps to show that they want to take charge. My instinct tells me that next season will be the Brewers year and the Cubs will be on the outside of the playoffs and their fans will be looking forward to 2009 in no time.

Day 11: Seattle Mariners

2007-12-06T16:52:00.000-08:00

The entire schedule of when team recaps will be.

Team: Seattle Mariners

2007 Regular Season Record: 88-74

Cost per Win: $106,460,833 / 88 = $1,209,782 per win

2007 Season Recap: The Mariners had a good season that just wasn’t good enough. They contended for the wild card until late in the season when the Yankees started to actually play like they should with their payroll. The Mariners ended the season 6 games back in the AL West and also 6 games back in the Wild Card race. Also of note is the fact that the Mariners had a manager change mid way through the season which caused a bit of a distraction to a team that looked solid in the first half.

Performances by the Mariners start with Ichiro and then you can talk about everyone else. The perennial all-star performed just as expected this year and led his team in batting average, RBIs, runs, and stolen bases. Most notably was that he batted .351, his highest average since 2004 when he hit .372. Besides Ichiro the Mariners didn’t have any extremely impressive performances but most of the starters played solid through the entire year.

Not everything was perfect for the Mariners though. In my opinion their biggest disappointment was Richie Sexson who was paid $15.5 million in 2007. In exchange for the team highest salary Richie didn’t contribute much. Most glaring of his bad numbers was his .205 batting average. He did have 21 home runs but that was down from the 34 he had last season and the 39 the season before. For the salary he has though he should be contributing a lot more to the team.

Key Free Agents: OF Jose Guillen, SP Tomo Ohka, SP Jeff Weaver, RP Chris Reitsma; Tomo Ohka is probably the biggest loss but the additional loss of Weaver opens a big hole in the pitching rotation. Weaver was bad this season but he was still a body that could eat up inning so in that sense he will be missed. Guillen is an offensive loss and had a very solid season in 2007 with a .290 batting average and adding 23 home runs.

Offseason Needs: The biggest need is at pitcher just because they lose 2 guys and now have a big gap to fill. There is a thin free agent stock of pitchers so the Mariners are in trouble and will probably have to pull off a trade to get a solid guy. Guillen has already signed with the Royals so the Mariners now need to go on a hunt for a right fielder since they lack experience in their organization at that position.

Prediction for the 2008 season: It will be more of the same for the Mariners next season. I don’t think they will be able to improve their pitching hardly at all and they probably won’t even be as close to the wild card or division as they were this year. The wild card most certainly won’t be coming out of the west this season so it is either the division or nothing for the Mariners and they don’t have the talent to keep up with the Angels.

Day 10: Detroit Tigers

2007-12-02T16:07:00.000-08:00

The entire schedule of when team recaps will be.

Team: Detroit Tigers

2007 Regular Season Record: 88-74

Cost per Win: $95,180,369 / 88 = $1,081,595 per win

2007 Season Recap: The Tigers had a solid season that just wasn’t good enough. On July 26th they were leading the AL Central by a game and a half and had the second best record in baseball. The Indians then caught fire and the Tigers started to slump and ended up 8 games back of them for the division and 6 back of the Yankees for the wild card.

The Tigers were led by MVP candidate Magglio Ordonez who led the team in batting average, home runs, and RBIs. His numbers were .363, 28, and 139 in those categories respectively. Ordonez has shown year after year to be a solid cornerstone to the Tigers franchise and is very much worth the $13 million that he made last year if any player is worth that much that is.

Another bright spot for the Tigers was pitcher Justin Verlander who led the team with an 18 and 6 record and a 3.66 ERA. Other bright spots on offense were Placido Polanco, and Curtis Granderson who both hit over .300 on the season and Granderson also added 23 home runs. The only regular Tiger’s starter who had a bad offensive season was Brandon Inge who hit only .236. On the other hand Inge was a solid performer defensively at third base with a .959 fielding percentage so his contribution to the team was not a waste.

Key Free Agents: 1B Sean Casey and SS Neifi Perez; Perez is a serious reach as a key free agent because he only played in 33 games but I wanted to have at least 2 people. The Tigers have already resigned starting pitcher Kenny Rodgers so that leaves only the loss of Casey who was a regular starter. The Tigers can now however move Carlos Guillen to 1st. Guillen played short stop last year but the Tigers have since brought in Edgar Renteria to play short stop next season. So in the end Casey isn’t a loss at all.

Offseason Needs: I thought of just taking this part out for the Tigers but that might seem strange when every other team has it filled in. So instead I will say that the Tigers really don’t have any offseason needs. Their starting pitching is solid especially with the development of Andrew Miller who I think will end up being a quality starter next year and the lineup looks solid from top to bottom. So in my opinion they don’t really have any needs after adding Renteria in the offseason.

Prediction for the 2008 season: So the Tigers have no offseason needs which makes a person think that they should have good success next season. It’s a sound theory and that is exactly what I think will happen next season. I predict the Tigers will win the division next year but will get a good amount of pressure from the Indian. This time they won’t stutter at the end though and they will keep a hold on the division lead all the way to the end. Once they reach the postseason they should get through the first round without a whole lot of problems but the second round will be a much greater problem because it will most likely be the Red Sox and I’ve stated before that I don’t see a lot standing in their way next year.

Day 9: New York Mets

2007-12-01T18:04:00.000-08:00

The entire schedule of when team recaps will be.

Team: New York Mets

2007 Regular Season Record: 88-74

Cost per Win: $115,231,663 / 89 = $1,294,737 per win

2007 Season Recap: Well it is definitely not a reach to say that the Mets had a disappointing end to the season. They looked like sure locks to make the postseason on the morning of the September 14th they had a 7 game advantage they then went on to lose 12 of their last 17 games. This gave the Phillies the division and left a very bad taste in the Mets fans mouth that is still there today. A lot of this losing skid was due to a lack of defense, in those 10 losses the Mets gave up 7 or more runs all but one time. Probably one of the most embarrassing things about those losses was that 8 of them were to either the Marlins or the Nationals and 3 were to the Phillies who eventually jumped them in the standings. The other loss was to the Cardinals another team that failed to make the playoffs by a good margin.

The Mets did have some solid performers though. They should when they have the 3rd highest salary in the majors. First of all was David Wright. Wright ended the season with a .325 batting average and added 30 home runs. Secondly, 41 year old Moses Alou had a very solid season with a .341 average and played very good defense for a man who has been said to have decreasing skill. Alou did spend some time on the DL so he was only in 87 games but he played solid when he was playing. The Mets have since exercised an option to keep Alou for the next season.

The Mets also had an interesting year on the pitcher’s mound. Most notable of this was Pedro Martinez. He missed a large portion of the season and got 5 starts. He won 3 of those starts and had a 2.57 ERA but in the end it wasn’t enough to get them to the playoffs. The Mets had 2 pitchers finish with a 15 and 10 records and Tom Glavine got his 300th win of his career.

Key Free Agents: SP Tom Glavine, C Paul Lo Duca, RF Shawn Green; It is a tossup in my mind as to who is the bigger loss Glavine or Lo Duca. Lo Duca is a solid bat and he hit .272 on the season but his power numbers were down. Glavine didn’t have the greatest record this season but he is a seasoned vet in the clubhouse and always puts in a good performance and keeps the game in check. Atlanta has already brought him back to the Braves so there is no hope of the Mets bringing him back. Even though thep pitchers had solid number this season it was the pitching that let them down in the end of the season so the failure to perform when it was necessary is disturbing.

Offseason Needs: The Mets are pretty solid from top to bottom going into next season. They lack depth at first base right now but it’s not likely Carlos Delgado will be benched ay times soon. They just need an insurance plan at that position. Other than that there are no glaring holes on the roster. The biggest problem will be confidence after falling apart at the end of the season like they did.

Prediction for the 2008 season: The Mets are going to be solid next season. I have very little doubts about that. They have a good manager and a good front office plus an ownership group that is willing to spend. I’m predicting an NL east title in 2008 and a much more solid end to the regular season. They should be able to get through their first round opponent in the playoffs also the next series is a much bigger question mark in my mind but they will make it close.

Day 8: San Diego Padres

2007-11-29T18:11:00.000-08:00

The entire schedule of when team recaps will be.

Team: San Diego Padres

2007 Regular Season Record: 89-74

Cost per Win: $58,110,567 / 89 = $652,927 per win

2007 Season Recap: The Padres had an interesting season to say the least. Especially the way they ended it. When the season ended the Padres found themselves tied with the Rockies for the wild card spot. This all meant that they had to play one more game to earn their way into the playoffs. 11 innings and a controversial call at home plate later the Padres found themselves on the wrong side of the outcome and missed out on the playoffs. If it makes them feel better they lost to the team that made it to the World Series.

On the field the Padres got some very good performances. One of these was by starting pitcher Jake Peavy. Peavy finished the season with 19 wins and 6 losses and a 2.54 ERA. This earned Peavy the unanimous vote for the NL Cy Young award. The Padres also got quality performances from Trevor Hoffman who set the record for most saves in a career; he had 42 saves this season.

On the offensive side of the game the Padres had several quality performances but no one player stood out from the crowd. One person I want to note is Milton Bradley. I’m a big fan of Bradley even though he needs to find a way to control his attitude. His on the field performance has always been solid and he helps his teams a lot when he is playing. IN 2007 he batted .313 after being acquired from the A’s. After coming off an injury he split time for a portion of the year so he didn’t see as much action as he deserved, Bradley is a free agent though so hopefully a team will get better use out of him next year.

Key Free Agents: CF Milton Bradley, CF Mike Cameron, C Michael Barrett, 2B Marcus Giles; I find it very interesting that the Padres haven’t come to a deal with either Bradley or Cameron. They now go from having 2 great center fielders to having nothing at that position. Luckily for them there are several quality center fielders available but it will definitely cost them.

Offseason Needs: Their first need is definitely at center field. They are losing 2 good bats and need to find a way to replace them if they want to contend at all. Other than that they need to find another second baseman. The one thing they don’t need is pitching, something most team can’t say. Their rotation will include Peavy and Maddux and any time you can hand a lead over to Hoffman a victory is a pretty good chance. They just need to find the guys to score runs so they have those leads late in games.

Prediction for the 2008 season: If you are a Padres fan I would recommend you look away now. Things aren’t going to be good for them. The Dodgers look like they could be stronger and I don’t think they have the offensive talent to keep up with the D’Backs and the Rockies. What that all means is that I see the Padres finishing 4th in the division even though it will probably be a somewhat close margin from the top to the bottom of the division. A few key free agents and that could all change in such a close division.

Day 7: Philadelphia Phillies

2007-11-28T17:49:00.001-08:00

The entire schedule of when team recaps will be.

Team: Philadelphia Phillies

2007 Regular Season Record: 89-73

2007 Postseason Record: 0-3; lost in NLDS

Cost per Win: $89,428,213 / 89 = $1,004,811 per win

2007 Season Recap: The Phillies had a somewhat successful season. The fact that they ended up winning their division would signal that it was a success but the way that they got in takes away from it a bit. In a lot of people’s opinions they didn’t win the division the Mets lost it. In the long run though it doesn’t’ matter how you got in just the fact that you got in. Once the Phillies got to the playoffs they just didn’t have nearly enough momentum on their side because they were matched up against the Rockies who without argument were the hottest team going into the playoffs. The Phillies ended up quickly getting swept out of the playoffs without putting up much of a fight.

The Phillies got some very good offensive performances in the regular season. Leading the group was NL MVP Jimmy Rollins who batted .296 with 41 stolen bases and 21 triples. Ryan Howard didn’t bat for a high average and was one of the league leaders in strikeouts this year but he did add 47 homeruns so no one was complaining about his performance. Also Chase Utley batted .332 with 22 home runs this season so he was also a positive.

The Phillies also had a few weak spots during the season. The key weak spot was at third base. The regular started Abraham Nunez batted only .234 on the season and a team needs much better offensive numbers from that position. Third base backup Wes Helms batted .246 last season so he wasn’t a better option either. Needless to say that is a position that needs to be addressed next season.

Key Free Agents: RP Antonio Alfonseca, 2B Tadahito Iguchi, SP Freddy Garcia, SP John Lieber, SP Kyle Lohse, CF Aaron Rowand; Rowand is probably the biggest loss for the Phillies because he was both a great defensive player, a good offensive player, and a great sparkplug to the team with his take no prisoners playing style. The loss of Iguchi is also a little bit of a worry but not as much simply because he was a mid-season trade who was only expected to play in the 2007 season. The loss of 3 starting pitchers is alarming and a worrisome thing especially with an offseason where pitchers are in high demand and not many good ones available.

Offseason Needs: The biggest need is at pitcher without a question. If the Phillies can’t add some strong arms then they are in big trouble and won’t be very competitive next season. The hole at 3rd base is also big and someone needs to be added there. Howard, Rollins, and Utley have the rest of the infield under control and are great players to build a team around. I haven’t heard it mentioned or anything but I think the Phillies should take a lot at making a deal for Dontrele Willis, especially with his reduced value this off-season.

Prediction for the 2008 season: The Phillies will have some problems next season unless they open their wallets really wide in the offseason. They haven’t done that yet and a lot of the big name pitchers are already on the verge of getting picked up. The Mets most likely won’t fall apart at the end of the regular season like this year so the Phillies will need to perform real well to stay in contention. I predict that they will miss out on the playoffs this year and in my opinion they will end the season in 3rd place in the NL east with the Braves taking 2nd place.

Day 6: Colorado Rockies

2007-11-27T10:16:00.000-08:00

The entire schedule of when team recaps will be.

Team: Colorado Rockies

2007 Regular Season Record: 90-73

2007 Postseason Record: 7-4; lost in World Series

Cost per Win: $54,424,000 / 97 = $561,072 per win

2007 Season Recap: The Rockies season had some serious up and downs. It definitely finished on a high note. They ended the season by winning the NL Wild card but they had to beat the Padres in a tie-breaker game to do that, that game took 11 innings to decide the winner. The Rockies then went on to sweep both the Phillies and the Diamondbacks out of the playoffs to get to the World Series. They then had 9 days off to get ready for the World Series and their matchup with the Red Sox. The layoff proved to be too long and the Rockies came out rusty in the beginning and their amazing season ended on a sour note with a 4 game sweep by the Red Sox. However when you consider that this team wasn’t even much of a contender to even reach the playoffs a World Series loss is a great success.

On the field the Rockies had some great performances from several key guys. First of all was Troy Tulowitzki. The rookie shortstop batted .291 on the season and put on a very impressive defensive showing at one of the hardest positions in baseball. In the end he came up just short in Rookie of the Year voting, it was the closest vote in history though.

The veterans weren’t going to let the young Diamondbacks get all the attention though. Matt Holliday put together a season that saw him place second in NL MVP voting after batting .340 with 36 home runs in the regular season. Also putting in a good season was Todd Helton who has played his entire career for the Rockies and he definitely deserved to be on this great run with his team, he ended the season with a .320 batting average so he earned his spot on the team and his $16 million salary. The Rockies had several other good performances and it showed with the winning streak they ended the season with and the strong playoff run they made, they had won 21 of 22 games before the World Series sweep.

Key Free Agents: 2B Kazuo Matsui, C Yorvit Torrealba, SP Josh Fogg, 6 RP’s; Matsui is probably the biggest free agent this offseason for the Rockies mostly due to the fact of how well he performed in the playoffs, his backup Jamey Carrol has shown a lot of potential though so he may not be missed that much. Torrealba will also be missed if the Rockies don’t resign him but there are several quality free agent catchers out there for the Rockies to pick up. Other than those 2 players it becomes a simple depth issue. The loss of 6 relievers will definitely be a problem if they can’t find quality guys to fill their spots. Fogg is something of a loss since he did have 10 wins this season. With the thin number of quality starting pitchers on the market the Rockies could go to regret letting him get away.

Offseason Needs: Catcher is probably the biggest concern for the Rockies right now. This is simply because they lack anyone with experience to fill the position. Chris Iannetta played some this season at catcher but only hit .218 so it would be a stretch to consider him a good option for the position. Beyond that the Rockies simply need to find some quality relievers to support a starting pitching staff that isn’t historically good at going deep into games.

Prediction for the 2008 season: The Rockies definitely have the momentum going into next season. I think I could safely say that they have more momentum than even the Red Sox. With most of their key parts returning, especially Holliday, Tulowitzki, and Helton, things look good for them. They also have a low salary so they will have space to bring in another key performer. I predict that they will win the NL West next season after a close battle with the Padres and Diamondbacks. Once they reach the playoffs they should be able to get through their first round opponent but I don’t see the good vibes of last season carrying them all the way to the World Series so a NLCS exit is what I’m predicting.

I'm back

2007-11-27T09:32:00.001-08:00

First off I want to apologize that I have failed miserably in getting a post up a day for the baseball thing. Thanksgiving got in the way and I couldn't really find a time to get it all done. I'll go ahead and tweak the overall schedule now and hope to get the 6th post up by tonight. I have some time now so I will probably do it now. It's the final week of classes for me so there is the possibility that I will miss a day or 2 again, just want to warn you.

Day 5: Arizona Diamondbacks

2007-11-19T18:03:00.000-08:00

The entire schedule of when team recaps will be.

Team: Arizona Diamondbacks

2007 Regular Season Record: 90-72

2007 Postseason Record: 3-4; lost in NLCS

Cost per Win: $52,067,546 / 93 = $559,866 per win

2007 Season Recap: The Diamondbacks had a better than expected season especially when you consider the age of their team. Add a young team with the fact that Randy Johnson missed nearly all of the season and you would expect the team to have a horrible season. The exact opposite happened though. They went out instead and won the NL West, arguably it was by a slim margin but still all things considered winning the division was probably more than they expected. First the Diamondbacks swept the Cubs in 3 games in the NLDS outscoring them 16-6. Then the D’Backs ran into the Colorado Rockies who they had barely edged out in the regular season. The Rockies were on an amazing roll and the Diamondbacks stood no change and got swept in 4 games.

One of the Diamondbacks biggest stories of the year was Brandon Webb’s consecutive scoreless inning streak. Webb threw 42 consecutive scoreless innings in the regular season and threatened to match Orel Hershiser’s record, he came up 12 innings short. In addition to that story was just the good story of the young Diamondback players playing consistent good baseball. While they did play consistent none of them put up amazing numbers. Only 1 player hit over .300 on the season and that was a pitcher. Rookie pitcher Micah Owings impressed with his bat as much with his arm. He went 4-4 two times in the regular season and ended with a batting average of .333.

The Diamondbacks did get one distinction that they may not be too proud of and that is that they were the first team to ever make the playoffs while getting outscored in the regular season by their opponents. The Diamondbacks scored 712 runs on the season and their opponents scored 732 runs. They still made the playoffs though so they probably weren’t complaining too much. In the end though that lack of offensive power proved to be their downfall in the postseason.

Key Free Agents: 1B Tony Clark, SP Livan Hernandez; Clark won’t prove to be too big of a loss but his experience could have helped a young team develop and grow together. Clark served as a fill in player for a large part of the season, starting in only 43 games, due to the rise of 25 year old Conner Jackson who will most likely keep his first base duties for several more years. Livan Hernandez may prove to be a bigger loss. This could severely hurt the pitching depth especially with the question mark of how healthy Randy Johnson is and if he will be able to come back and pitch. Hernandez will most likely sign a big contract somewhere due to the thin market of free agent pitchers and the Diamondbacks aren’t a team to lay down big money for players, especially considering the success they had this year with few big contracts on the payroll. It will be interesting to see exactly what the D’Backs do to assemble a solid 5 man pitching rotation.

Offseason Needs: The biggest need is at pitcher but I won’t go in depth into that because I already have. Besides pitcher they simply need to find some players that can hit for higher averages. I think they will all come from in house as the young talent develops into smarter more patient hitters. So really the D’Backs don’t need to be too aggressive in the offseason just simply need to work with the guys in the clubhouse.

Prediction for the 2008 season: I personally like the Diamondbacks so I would love to see them succeed but they have an uphill battle. They got lucky several times last season and if that luck changes at all they could be on the outside looking in next season. They will have another close battle in the division with the Rockies and Padres and in the end I think the Diamondbacks will end up out of the playoffs with the Rockies instead riding the good vibe from the World Series into the next season. I also don’t see the wild card coming out of the west again so all that leaves no place for the D’Backs in the playoffs. I do think they will be an improved team but a lot of other teams around them will improve too. I can’t say I would be surprised if they made it but my prediction is that they come up just short.

Day 4: New York Yankees

2007-11-18T16:13:00.000-08:00

The entire schedule of when team recaps will be.

Team: New York Yankees

2007 Regular Season Record: 94-68

2007 Postseason Record: 1-3; lost in ALDS

Cost per Win: $189,639,045 / 95 = $1,996,200 per win

2007 Season Recap: Another season and another year without a World Series championship. They’re starting to get desperate in the Bronx which is why they thought they needed to change managers, a mistake they will probably regret. I like Joe Girardi and all but I think Joe Torre is the best guy for the Yankees. The Yankees on the field had mixed success. They finished the season a lot better than they were doing in the middle. For a long time it looked like they wouldn’t have a chance of making the playoffs but in the end the world’s most overpriced players decided maybe they should earn their paychecks.

Once the Yankees did get to the playoffs though they didn’t rise to the occasion. They fell to the Cleveland Indians in 4 games in the ALDS. The pitching had mixed success in the playoffs much like the regular season. On the offensive side the Yankees bats fell asleep for the playoffs. This bad performance included a poor performance by Derek Jeter who finished the postseason with a .176 batting average. As a team they had a .228 batting average.

Overall the season just wasn’t what everyone expects from the Yankees. When you have a salary that is the largest in the majors by a long ways you expect a lot more success. Especially against a Cleveland team with a payroll that is a third of the Yankees. That is why they play the games and don’t just let you buy championships.

Key Free Agents: SP Roger Clemens & Andy Pettitte, RP Mariano Rivera, 3B Alex Rodriguez, C Jorge Posada, 1B Doug Mientkiewicz; The losses for the Yankees start on the pitching mound. It is starting to look like both Clemens and Pettitte are going to hang it up. On the other hand there is good news for Yankees fans and that is that both Rodriguez and Posada both are on the verge of signing new contracts it’s just a matter of making it official. In additional good news Rivera also looks like he is ready to sign a new deal with the Yankees, signing a 3 year $45 million deal. Mientkiewicz isn’t that major of a loss and the Yanks already have backup at that position.

Offseason Needs: As usual the Yankees don’t have any major needs going into the offseason. One of those advantages of having a nearly blank check to bring in every player you need. Center field is probably the spot with the most need because Johnny Damon is bad defensively and a risk at center and Melky Cabrera doesn’t put up the power numbers you would expect from a Yankees outfielder, he did however have a .327 average in 2007 so the Yanks will be fine if they are stuck with Cabrera. The other position with a question mark over it is first base. Shelly Duncan developed over that last season and Jason Giambi can also be used there. So if the Yankees want to add a new player because they can then expect it to be at first.

Prediction for the 2008 season: As far as names and talent go the Yankees should be contenders for the World Series but the question is what has really changed in the Bronx. The answer is nothing. All they have done is brought back everyone that they had before for even more money. This combined with the loss of 2 starting pitchers puts the Yankees in a bad position where they will have to trade off even more of their farm team just to be able to assemble a quality 5 man pitching rotation. From a name power standpoint the Yankees will go undefeated but to bad for their fans the name on the jersey isn’t what wins games, it’s the performance that those players put out. So my prediction for the Yankees is more of the same. They will win the Wild Card and probably finish about 10 games back of the Red Sox in the AL East. Then in the playoffs they will fall to a better managed and much less high profile team and the baseball world will be better because of it.

Day 3: Los Angeles Angels

2007-11-17T14:46:00.000-08:00

The entire schedule of when team recaps will be.

Team: Los Angeles Angels

2007 Regular Season Record: 94-68

2007 Postseason Record: 0-3; lost in ALDS

Cost per Win: $109,251,333 / 94 = $1,162,248 per win

2007 Season Recap: It was a good regular season for the Angles seeing them win the AL West by 6 games over the Mariners. They did this while posting a 54-27 record at home, the most wins at home of any team. That also means that they posted a sub .500 record on the road, something they surely want to improve. When they got to the playoffs however they ran into Red Sox who easily swept them out of town. In the 3 games in the playoffs they were outscored 19-4, this includes a 9-1 beating in game three to finish off the series.

A far as individual performances go the Angels had several quality performances. This was all led by Vladimir Guerrero who ended with a .324 average and 27 home runs. If not for Alex Rodriguez’s amazing season Guerrero would be an MVP favorite. Also contributing with a strong season was third baseman Chone Figgins with a .330 average and 41 stolen bases. Another player deserving of mention is second baseman Howie Kendrick. The 24 year old played in 88 games after being called up from AAA on May 23rd and ended with a .322 batting average.

The Angels also had some good performances from the pitching mound. Kelvim Escobar had a record of 18-7 on the season and John Lackey had a record of 19-9. In addition coming off of a great rookie season Jered Weaver had a record of 13-7 and certainly the Angles hope that he won’t has the rapid talent loss that his brother Jeff had.

Key Free Agents: SP Bartolo Colon; Colon is not actually that important of a loss but he is the only player they lose besides a relief pitcher who only appeared in 9 games. Colon had a 608 record this season with a 6.34 ERA so he won’t be missed too much.

Offseason Needs: The Angles are a team in a very good position going into the offseason. They could use a bit more depth but every team could use that and depth is something that should come from your player development and not from the free agent market. Their lack of free agents is a very good sign for them and should mean that they come back strong next season.

Prediction for the 2008 season: I have a mixed opinion on the future of the Angels. They have the talent and the experience on their team to make a run but their road record is disturbing. They also have stiff competition from the Mariners every year and this year won’t be any different. My prediction for them is that the Angels will be in a close battle for the AL West which will be their only route into the playoffs since I don’t think they will be able to post enough wins to get a wild card berth into the postseason. In the end they will be just a game or 2 behind the Mariners and miss out on the playoffs.

Day 2: Cleveland Indians

2007-11-16T17:04:00.000-08:00

The entire schedule of when team recaps will be

Team: Cleveland Indians

2007 Regular Season Record: 96-66

2007 Postseason Record: 6-5; lost in ALCS

Cost per Win: $61,673,267 / 102 = $604,639 per win

2007 Season Recap: The regular season went a lot better than expected with the Indians tying for the best record in baseball and winning the AL Central division by 8 games. These results led to manager Eric Wedge being named AL Manager of the Year. They won 96 games in the regular season and lost to the Red Sox in the ALCS in 7 games after beating the Yankees 3-2 in a great ALDS. All of this was done with a payroll that ranked 23rd in the majors. In addition when the Indians do spend money they spend it in the right places. There highest paid player was C.C. Sabathia with a salary of a little under $9 million. All Sabathia did was win the AL Cy Young Award so you could definitely say that was well spent money.

As far as on the field batting performances the Indians didn’t have any one big time stand-out which is the way a lower salary team would like to perform. The pitching on the other hand had several standouts. They had 2 pitchers who had 19 wins, Sabathia and 24 year old Fausto Carmona. Paul Byrd also contributed 15 wins for the Indians. In addition closer Joe Borowski had 45 saves.

If there weren’t any outside batting performances you would probably assume that there where then some poor batting performances. This however is really not the case. The worst performer on the team was Josh Barfield who batted only .243 as the starting 2nd baseman, he also had 15 errors on the season which isn’t that high of a number especially when you consider his $400,000 salary. Overall the Indians played a good team game and were successful for it. They play baseball the way it should be played in my opinion.

Key Free Agents: CF Kenny Lofton an RF Trot Nixon; The Indian have already exercised club options to keep pitchers Paul Byrd, Joe Borowski, and Aaron Fultz so their offseason losses won’t be to severe. Lofton and Nixon are both seasoned veterans who put up good numbers but they are getting old and a well run team like the Indians should be able to find some young talent to fill their places. If they don’t turn to their own farm system then this is an off-season ripe with talented outfield free agents.

Offseason Needs: The Indians are another team that is on very solid footing going into the 2008 season. They do however need to have some more consistent bats in the lineup or to add a big bat. With players like Sizemore and Hafner on the team though the talent is already there it is just a matter of them getting in a groove and hitting the ball more consistently. When your team has the pitching that the Indians will have you can get away with a few less .300 hitters in the lineup. There biggest need in the offseason will be finding a new center fielder but there are many available on the market so they may be able to get one at a good value.

Prediction for the 2008 season: I definitely see the Indians contending for the AL Central again. The Tigers and White Sox have to do something to improve to be able to put runs on the Indian’s pitching staff. They will have a hard time affording a lot of the big name guys so the Indians have the advantage going into the start of the season. I however don’t think the Indians have the bats to get past the ALDS next year unless they make some roster moves to improve that lineup.

Day 1: Boston Red Sox

2007-11-15T09:56:00.000-08:00

The entire schedule of when team recaps will be.

Team: Boston Red Sox

2007 Regular Season Record: 96-66

2007 Postseason Record: 10-3; won World Series

Cost per win: $143,026,214 / 106 = $1,349,303 per win

2007 Season Recap: Well things really couldn’t have gone any better for the Red Sox this season. They won the World Championship and did it by leading their division for most of the regular season and tied for the best regular season record in baseball. They rolled over the Angles in the ALDS, won in 7 games over the Indians in the ALCS, and easily pulled off the sweep of the Rockies in the World Series. Their big name guys played like planned most of the season. Josh Beckett contended for the AL Cy Young award and high profile import Dice-K Matsuzaka came close to matching the hype that surrounded him from the time it was announced that he was signed.

While it’s hard to find problem spots with a team that had as good of a season as the Sox did it would have to be the overpaying of a couple players who had sub-par seasons. One spot of weakness in the Red Sox armor was at short stop in the form of Julio Lugo and his $8 million salary. Lugo batted .237 on the season and had 19 errors through the season, definitely not worth the money they spent on him. Another questionable pick-up for the Red Sox was J.D. Drew who they paid $14 million in 2007. Drew ended up with a .270 batting average and 64 RBIs definitely not the numbers to justify a salary higher than David Ortiz. Drew however made up for his bad regular season by shining in the postseason.

On the plus side the Red Sox got some surprise performances from low salary and very young players. Leading the pack was AL Rookie of the Year Justin Pedroia. Pedroia took the starting second baseman duties for the Sox and hit .317 and only had 6 errors in 137 games. Another young player stepping up this season for the Red Sox was Jonathon Papelbon. He built on his strong 2006 season and converted 37 of 40 save opportunities. There were several other big time performances for the red Sox this season but that is expected for a team with a $143 million payroll, the second highest in baseball.

Key Free Agents: 3B Mike Lowell and RP Mike Timlin; that’s really all for the Sox free agents, they have already resigned Julian Tavarez, Curt Schilling, and Tim Wakefield so they really won’t have any major losses to free agency. Eric Gagne is a free agent but I don’t think anyone in Boston will be upset to see him go after how little he performed for the Red Sox this season.

Offseason Needs: The Red Sox are in great shape this offseason. If they are able to resign Mike Lowell then they don’t have any glaring problems from top to bottom. I’m assuming that both Lugo and Drew will get out of the slumps that they were in this year and if they don’t the Sox are pretty much stuck with playing them because of their big long term contracts that will be hard to convince any team to take on. The Red Sox may need to bring in some pitching help to increase the depth of both the bullpen and the starting rotation but 3 or 4 of the 5 days they can be pretty sure they will get solid starts from Beckett, Dice-K, Schilling, and Wakefield. So any additions the Sox will make this offseason will be more for depth rather than to add an impact player.

Prediction for the 2008 season: Their isn’t going to be a whole lot holding the Red Sox back from putting up another very good season. The one thing that could slow them down is injuries to a roster that is aging. I could very easily see them making it to the NLCS or World Series once again. I’m not sure if I see them winning it all again but I will give that some thought and get back to you after I’ve looked at all the teams.

Baseball Postseason Team by Team

2007-11-14T11:23:00.000-08:00

OK time for this blog to actually have some direction. I've been thinking for the past few days what I wanted to do with this thing and I'm come up with the idea look at all 30 MLB teams on a team by team basis. I will look at their 2007 season, their free agent losses, their off-season needs, and give my prediction on their 2008 season. I'm planing on doing a team a day and I will go by their regular season record from the previous season, going from best to worst. All of the fun will start tomorrow with the Red Sox and end 30 days later with the Devil Rays. Here is the schedule as it stands right now. If I miss a day I will try to revise it the best I can. School and life can get a little crazy on me at times so missing a day is a possibility. I'll also link the post with the individual team posts as I get them up so you can easily get back and forth.

Here is my proposed schedule:
November 15: Boston Red Sox
November 16: Cleveland Indians
November 17: Los Angeles Angels
November 18: New York Yankees
November 19: Arizona Diamondbacks
November 27: Colorado Rockies
November 28: Philadelphia Phillies
November 29: San Diego Padres
December 1: New York Mets
December 2: Detroit Tigers
December 6: Seattle Mariners
December 7: Chicago Cubs
December 13: Atlanta Braves
December 14: Milwaukee Brewers
December 15: Toronto Blue Jays
December 16: Los Angeles Dodgers
December 17: Minnesota Twins
December 18: St. Louis Cardinals
December 19: Oakland A's
December 20: Texas Rangers
December 21: Houston Astros
December 22: Washington Nationals
December 23: Chicago White Sox
December 24: Cincinnati Reds
December 25: Florida Marlins
December 26: San Francisco Giants
December 27: Baltimore Orioles
December 28: Kansas City Royals
December 29: Pittsburgh Pirates
December 30: Tampa Bay Devil Rays

There it all is. Check back tomorrow for the first edition. I'm glad I'm getting the Red Sox out of the way first so I don't have to talk about them anymore. Hope you all like this and please don't hesitate to invite your friends along to check it out. Also if you don't agree with my opinions please let me know, leave a comment and maybe we can get some good discussion about this going.

Goodbye for now loyal readers.

Biking to school

2007-11-08T19:32:00.000-08:00

So finally the temperature here has dropped and the humidity has gone away. I have taken this opportunity to save some gas money and get some exercise and ride my bike to school. Now to understand a bit of the insanity of the idea you need to understand that I live about 3 and a half miles from school and my classes start at either 8 or 9:30 in the morning depending on the day. What that means to you is that I have to ride to school at the busiest of times for Miami traffic and if you have ever been to Miami then you know how crazy that is.

Anyways, besides the fact that I am seriously questioning my sanity I still do it and have for the past 2 days and will again tomorrow. I of course wear a helmet I wouldn't do it otherwise I'm not that stupid. Most of the rid is fairly pleasant with the occasional times of stress when I have to cross some busy intersections. I must say it is always a welcome sight to see the wonderful green campus that is the University of Miami.

Once on campus the bike is a great thing to have. When I go form class to work I have to cross virtually the entire campus. The walk used to take me about 15 minutes and now it takes 5 and is much more pleasant. Plus it makes me feel like I am being a lot more efficient with my time.

In total I think the whole idea of riding my bike is a very rewarding experience. The decreased need to visit a gas pump is definitely a plus and I like to feel like I am doing some good for the environment. For those of you that can ride a bike to work or school I recommend it. You get to your destination a lot more refreshed and you might not even need that morning coffee after riding through the crisp morning air. So all I say is give it a shot you never know you might like it.

HGH and professional baseball

2007-11-06T18:21:00.000-08:00

Another day and yet another set of notable baseball players implicated with the purchase of steroids and HGH. This time the most notable of them was Jose Guillen. What a shock this story was broken by the San Fransisco Chronicle.

The first thing I wonder is why is it always the San Fransisco Chronicle reporting that baseball players used steroids. Especially considering that the labs that these players supposedly got the steroids from is in Florida. It is starting to seem like they have a bulletin board of players names and they just throw 3 darts at the board to identify players that supposedly purchased HGH. So far there is only one player that has admitted to using HGH and that is Paul Byrd. It also seems odd that there is always only a small set of players each time and it seems there is only 1 notable player in each group. To me this seems like it is just a bit to perfect of a scenario in terms of getting long term media attention.

Secondly there is also the fact that HGH was banned in 2005 and in every case these players are reported to have stopped ordering the stuff in 2005. So by the letter of the law they did nothing wrong. Baseball is a sport ruled by the letter of the law too. A homerun is decided by a yellow line on the wall and an centimeter difference can change everything. So if all of these claims are proven to be true, which I highly doubt will actually happen, then these players should not be punished for doing something that wasn't illegal at the time.

I am in no way saying it was a good thing that these guys used HGH but you can not punish these guys retroactively if they aren't doing it anymore. Instead these players should be used as the main advisors as the way to fight back against HGH. They could provide information that no clean player or non-baseball player could provide. Baseball will soon be provided with a very unique and difficult choice that could change sports forever. Getting all the players on board for a new clean baseball is the best bet or risk sending the sport into the realm of completely irrelevant.

This will be a Patriots free post

2007-11-05T17:54:00.000-08:00

For those of you that don't have fantasy teams and aren't dedicated NFL watchers I have big news for you. There are 32 teams in the NFL and not just one like most media outlets seem to think. So I thought for today's post I highlight some of the NFL stories that have nothing to do with the team in New England that I will not name.

1) There are 3 teams currently with only 1 loss. I know this may be shocking to some of you. The Colts are not the only team that is 7 and 1 right now. The Cowboys and Packers are also having great seasons and have only one blemish on their record. Oh and Brett Favre is still playing quarterback for the Packers which makes their run even more impressive. Other than that their aren't a lot of big names on that team that would carry a whole lot of weight outside of only the purest of NFL fan circles.

2)The Lions, yes the ones from Detroit are 6 and 2. That means they have 6 wins and only 2 losses if you thought that maybe I typed that in the wrong order, I didn't. Journeyman John Kitna is leading them and rookie receiver Calvin Johnson is starting to look like he will live up to his much hyped potential. The Lions are another team that has a bunch of lesser known guys playing in key roles. Watch out or the NFL might become a team game here, better warn T.O. before he becomes dispensable.

3)Vinny Testaverde is back, has started, and won a game. He is now a member of the Carolina Panthers and 4 days after signing with the team started and won the game against Arizona. Now he isn't going to be their long term or anything but just the fact that this guy has stayed in shape for this long and can still play at this level is impressive.

OK those are all I will leave you with for tonight. Just thought I would shine the light on a few of the good stories that aren't getting a whole lot of attention even though we have 24/7 coverage of sports. Oh and as and added note I just turned on the Pittsburgh-Baltimore game and the Steelers look like they are wearing University of Iowa retro jerseys. This retro jersey craze needs to be stopped, now.

ACC Regular Season Wrap-Up

2007-11-04T17:31:00.000-08:00

The regular season of ACC women's soccer has finally concluded. In Sunday action Miami lost to Wake Forest 0-2, Maryland beat NC State 2-0, and Virginia Tech defeated Boston College 3-0. Two of the games had an affect on the ACC standings. Here are the final standings:

1) North Carolina with 27pts. after 10 games
2) Florida State with 20 pts. after 10 games
3) Wake Forest with 20 pts. after 10 games
4) Virginia with 18 pts. after 10 games
5) Boston College with 14 pts. after 10 games
6) Miami with 14 pts. after 10 games
7) Duke with 13 pts. after 10 games
8) Virginia Tech with 11 pts. after 10 games
9) Clemson with 11 pts. after 10 games
10) Maryland with 4 pt. after 10 games
11) NC State with 1 pt. after 10 games

This is the order that the standings are in on the ACC website. There are several tie-breakers that will have to be done though and I don't know how those works. If it was professional soccer they would use goal differential but since that isn't shown on the standings I'm guessing they use something else for tie-breaks. If they use head-to-head matchup then Miami has the advantage over Boston College and Wake Forest has the advantage over Florida State. For the 8th seed however things aren't as simple because Clemson and Virginia Tech tied in their meeting this season. Like I said I don't really know how it works. The tournament starts on Wednesday so we will all know by then. Good Luck to the Canes in the tournament.

ACC standings before the final day of the season

2007-11-03T20:12:00.000-07:00

The final day is almost upon us. Only one more day remaining in the ACC women's soccer regular season. Their are 3 games on Sunday; Miami @ Wake Forest, Boston College @ Virginia Tech, and NC State @ Maryland. All of the games are at 1 so expect an update sometime around 5 or when the Colts-Patriots game gets over, that will have my attention in the afternoon. Anyways, here are the ACC standings heading into Sunday.

1) North Carolina with 27pts. after 10 games
2) Florida State with 20 pts. after 10 games
3) Virginia with 18 pts. after 10 games
4) Wake Forest with 17 pts. after 9 games
5) Boston College with 14 pts. after 9 games
6) Miami with 14 pts. after 9 games
7) Duke with 13 pts. after 10 games
8) Clemson with 11 pts. after 10 games
9) Virginia Tech with 8 pts. after 9 games
10) NC State with 1 pt. after 9 games
11) Maryland with 1 pt. after 9 games

So now what do Sunday's games mean to everything. The NC State - Maryland match means nothing it will just decide the worst team in the conference. I'm hoping for a tie in that one just for the comedic aspect of it.

The Miami - Wake Forest game has a lot of importance to decide seeding. Miami can move up to 4th with a win and Wake could take 3rd with a win. The lowest Wake could end up would be a tie for 4th and Miami could fall into 6th place alone instead of the tie for 5th they are currently in.

The Boston College - Virginia Tech game has a lot of importance also. BC is looking to move into a tie for 4th and Virginia Tech needs to win to force a tie breaker for the final seed into the tournament. So that game will feature two teams playing their hardest. Would be a great one to watch. So it's going to be an interesting day and the final outcomes of the 2 games will be a major factor in the ACC tournament. Keep you eyes here for the final update going into the tournament.

The ACC standings after Thursday

2007-11-02T11:30:00.001-07:00

Well one day of the final weekend for ACC soccer's regular season has concluded and the picture has gotten clearer. Miami lost at Duke 4-2, Florida State defeated Clemson 2-0, Wake Forest beat NC State 4-2, and Boston College won at Maryland 2-0. So you are probably wondering what this all means. Well I'm going to tell you but first here are the updated standings:

1) North Carolina with 24pts. after 9 games
2) Florida State with 20 pts. after 10 games
3) Virginia with 18 pts. after 9 games
4) Wake Forest with 17 pts. after 9 games
5) Boston College with 14 pts. after 9 games
6) Miami with 14 pts. after 9 games
7) Duke with 13 pts. after 9 games
8) Virginia Tech with 8 pts. after 9 games
9) Clemson with 8 pts. after 9 games
10) NC State with 1 pt. after 9 games
11) Maryland with 1 pt. after 9 games

OK so North Carolina has the #1 seed locked up. FSU has locked up a top 4 seed. Virginia can still take the #2 seed with a win against North Carolina tonight, they also have a top 4 seed locked up. Wake Forest could move into a tie for 2nd at the best and a tie for 4th at the worst. Both Boston College and Miami have ACC tournament bids locked up but the seed could be anywhere from 4th to 7th. Duke is also a lock and could rise as high as 5th. Virginia Tech and Clemson are fighting for that final spot in games against Boston College and Duke respectively. Finally NC State and Maryland are mathematically out of it by a long ways.

The best case scenario for Miami would be a win over Wake Forest and a loss by Boston College at the hands of Virginia Tech. This would put them in a tie for 4th and a rematch against Wake Forest who they play on Sunday in the final game of the season. I'm not sure how the tie breakers work but if Miami and Boston College both win then you would have a 3 way tie at 4th. That could make the seeding very interesting because the team on the short end of that would get matched up against Virginia or Florida State a challenge no team wants in the first round. All will be sorted out Sunday but expect another update on Saturday night after the UVA-UNC game and the Duke-Clemson games are completed. Those 2 games will clear up the picture a whole lot more.

See people women's soccer can be interesting.

A look at ACC women's soccer going into the final week

2007-11-01T16:29:00.000-07:00

Alright it's the final week of the regular season for ACC women's soccer. I know this may not interest everybody but if you pay attention and keep track of it all it can be very exciting. I thought I would let you know what could possibly happen to the UM women's team after the conclusion of all the games on Sunday. Going into the final week here are the standings in the ACC:

1) North Carolina with 24pts. after 9 games
2) Virginia with 18 pts. after 9 games
3) Florida State with 17 pts. after 9 games
4) Miami with 14 pts. after 8 games
5) Wake Forest with 14 pts. after 8 games
6) Boston College with 11 pts. after 8 games
7) Duke with 10 pts. after 8 games
8) Virginia Tech with 8 pts. after 9 games
9) Clemson with 8 pts. after 8 games
10) NC State with 1 pt. after 8 games
11) Maryland with 1 pt. after 8 games

Ok so there that is. There are a total of 10 matches in the ACC conference season so that is the basis for everything. 8 teams make the ACC tournament and NC State and Maryland are out of the race. Miami is a lock to get in unless they lose both matches and Clemson wins both against Duke and FSU. The highest seed they can get is 2nd with a pair of wins and a lot of losses by the top teams which isn't a complete impossibility with FSU facing Clemson who needs to win and Virginia facing North Carolina who's only loss is to the Hurricanes. That leaves the 'Canes with the task of defeating Duke and Wake Forest. It is a close race except for the top seed which North Carolina has locked up.

Hopefully that isn't to confusing. Everything will be settled on Sunday but I will also provide an update after tonight's games which will be kicking off in about 4 minutes.

GO CANES!!!!!!

The World Series is over, seems like it hardly started

2007-10-29T17:43:00.000-07:00

Well it's all over now. The Cardinals are no longer the World Series champs. They have officially been dethroned by the Boston Red Sox. For those of you who don't pay attention to baseball well you missed a 4 game sweep by the Red Sox over the Rockies. If you didn't know this then I don't think you are nearly the only one. Even though the Red Sox were in the game it seemed like the hype around this series was a lot lower than previous years. It's amazing how different the attention around a sporting event is when it isn't covered continually by ESPN.

This lack of ESPN coverage could be due to many factors I think. First of all the Rockies just don't have the national attention like a lot of teams and there seemed to be an accepted feeling that they would just get rolled over. Secondly I think the fact that ESPN didn't air any of the games also influences their coverage. Whether you consider that wrong or right I will leave up to you. Thirdly I think Major League Baseball did it to themselves. These long breaks between series are killing the hype around a game. We as Americans have a very very short attention span and if you try to make us remember what happened even 3 days ago with all kinds of sports going on around us you asking a whole lot. Think if the Red Sox would have swept the Indians also. Then you would have had the Rockies with 8 days off and the Red Sox with 7. I don't know a lot of people that could find enough to talk about for a whole week when they only have 2 teams and 1 game to talk about. It's the playoffs team don't need these long breaks, they don't like them, and fans don't either. Could someone please explain why we still have them.

Ok I'm done with that rant and I'll call it a night with that because the Series really didn't give me to much to talk about, it was kind of boring really. Oh well time for football to completely dominate for the next 3 months. Yeah I know hockey and basketball will be going on but I don't care about either and I don't think I'm in the minority on that.

Miami plays to a 1-1 tie with Clemson on Senior Night

2007-10-28T13:42:00.000-07:00

Last night the UM Women's Soccer Team took on Clemson in their final home game of the season. It was also senior night so the 6 seniors on the team were honored. This included goalie Lauren McAdam, midfielders Lindsay Curtin, Jessica Gilman, Jenna Levenson, and Sheuneen Ta, and forward Akilah Moore. Several of these seniors have been key in the 'Canes successful season and deserved to be honored.

Then the game go started. I didn't have a very good view for the first half because I was working at the entrance gate. Things started out slow for the Hurricanes and they couldn't really mount much of an attack. Clemson on the other hand scored 8 minutes into the game. I missed the goal but according to the website they scored on a cross that got put into the back of the net. The Clemson goal did seem to wake up the Hurricanes though and after that they put a lot more pressure on the Clemson defense.

The 'Canes pressure didn't pay off until late in the second half after a series of corner kicks. One the 4th corner kick in a row Beverly Goebel headed the ball into the back of the net to bring the score even. The score remained tied through the rest of regular time. This brought the game into overtime.

For those of you unfamiliar with the college soccer rules they are the same as professional soccer with two 15 minute overtime periods that are played out to completion no matter the scoring during the overtime period.

Anyways back to the UM game. Things were fairly competitive through the entire 30 minutes but neither team was able to put a goal on the board. This all meant that the game ended in a 1-1 tie.

Even though the 'Canes didn't get the win they still put up another very good showing. The win moved them into 4th place in ACC and pretty much secured a spot in the ACC tournament. It has been a great season for the 'Canes especially at home where they posted a record of 6-1-1. They have 2 games remaining in the regular season against Duke and Wake Forest that will help decide their seed in the ACC tournament. I wish them the best of luck for the rest of the season. Also for those who aren't to into women's soccer I promise some posts that are about some other topics in the sports world. Like the World Series for example.

Miami FSU and ACC showdown, soccer style

2007-10-24T16:30:00.000-07:00

Sorry this took so long. I'm apparently really bad at this blog thing. Anyways here is the news on the latest UM soccer game.

Last Sunday the UM soccer team went on the road to Florida State. The game was televised on SUN sports so I got a chance to watch it without having to travel all the way across the state. In the end UM lost 4-1 to a very good Florida State team.

The Seminoles attack was fierce and consistent. They out shot the Hurricanes 17-12 overall and it was an even greater margin in the first half alone. This was a Florida State team that was ranked 12th in the nation at the time and featured the nations leading scorer. While it was not Lauren McAdam's best game statistically she still made some great saves and looked very good at times.

On the offensive side the Hurricanes didn't look as bad as the score might make you think. Their performance in the second half was much better than the first half and they put a good amount of pressure on the Seminoles defense. This pressure was led by freshman Brittney Steinbruch. Steinbruch took 6 shots in the game and scored the Hurricanes only goal.

The Hurricanes are finally getting national attention. They are now ranked 25th in the Soccer America poll and have received votes in the 2 other national polls. This tells you first of how just how good the Seminoles are that the Hurricanes moved up in the polls with a loss. Also this is respect that the Hurricanes have long deserved and I think that the fact that it came after a loss is just further demonstration of it.

As a final note the Hurricanes take on Clemson this Saturday at home. This is the final home match and also senior night. Theses girls deserve a good showing and everyone who can should at least check them out once this year. I know I will be there, hope to see everyone else there.

Another match and another win for UM soccer

2007-10-18T17:34:00.000-07:00

This Wednesday the UM soccer team made the epic journey to the Florida International campus. OK maybe epic isn't the correct word since the FIU campus is about 9 miles north-west of the UM campus. So after a short little drive across Miami, UM was ready to take on the FIU Panthers. This was the final non-conference game for the Hurricanes and was kind of a tune-up for the big game against FSU this Sunday. UM beat FIU 3-1 in what appears to have been a very offensive minded game. The Hurricanes had a total of 20 shots, 13 of which were on goal.

I didn't go to the game so everything I'm going to tell you is from the article and statistics on the UM website. Brittney Steinbruch was up to her old tricks putting in the first 2 goals of the game in the 12th and 16th minutes. The 2 goals gives Steinbruch 15 on the season putting her back on her pace of one goal a game. Not surprisingly she is on pace to break the UM record for single season goals, she is one goal shy of tying the record.

Beverly Goebel also added a goal for the Hurricanes in the second half, her 3rd of the season. Also notable is that freshman Lauren Singer put a great amount of pressure on the FIU defense by firing 8 shots, 5 of which were on goal. No one better be concerned about the next few years for the Hurricanes with such strong offense from 2 freshman and Goebel, a sophomore. Don't think I'm overlooking the senior in Sheuneen Ta who assisted on Steinbruch second goal. Jessica Wybel got the assist on Steinbruch's first goal. Steinbruch got the assist on Goebel's goal in the second half.

While the UM defense didn't get the shutout like they have been doing a lot lately they still did a great job of holding FIU down offensively. They only had 4 shots on goal on the night which is a very low number when you consider the number of shots on goal that UM had.

The Hurricanes have a big test on Sunday when the take a much longer trip to take on rival Florida State. If you haven't seen the UM women in action this will be a perfect opportunity. You can catch the match on Sun Sports at 1 P.M. on Sunday. I know I'll be watching.

Major National Honors for UM goalie Lauren McAdam

2007-10-17T11:05:00.000-07:00

Well we can no longer say that UM soccer isn't getting attention nationally. It was just announced today that UM goalie Lauren McAdam has earned several national honors in addition to being named ACC women's soccer player of the week. Today McAdam was named NSCAA National Player of the week, that stands for National Soccer Coaches Association of America if you were wondering. In addition she was also named to the Soccer America Women's Team of the Week and Soccer Buzz Elite Team of the Week.

This is some long overdue respect in my opinion. I've been talking all season long about how good McAdam has performed this season and this isn't her first quality season. I fully expect several more honors by the end of the season especially with the roll that the Hurricanes are on right now.

Congratulations Lauren!!!!

Another win and some awards for UM Soccer

2007-10-16T16:32:00.000-07:00

I should have posted this a couple of days ago but I've been running low on energy lately. Anyways it just wouldn't be a worthwhile blog if I didn't keep up with the UM soccer team. Last Sunday they played Maryland at home and even though I had woken up at 4:30 that morning I went. I was happy I did. UM ended up winning 1-0 in a very good game that was physical and fast paced. The win brings the team's record to 7 and 1 at home and gives them 8 wins, 3 ties, and 3 losses on the season overall. It also moves them into a tie for 2nd in the ACC with FSU.

UM's goal was scored in the final minutes by super freshman Brittney Steinbruch, giving her 13 goals this season. Her goal came off of a very impressive shot from outside of the box that shot past the Maryland goalie. This was a long overdue goal and Miami had many chances in the game to score and they kept good consistent pressure on the Maryland defense the whole day.

Fellow freshman Lauren Singer also deserves some mention for her play on the offensive side. She had several good runs in the first half that helped to take some of the pressure off of Steinbruch for the second half. Another player deserving of mention is senior goalie Lauren McAdam who recorded her second straight shutout and to set the UM career record for shutouts. For her effort McAdam was named ACC women's soccer player of the week, some long overdue recognition in my opinion. Other notable performances on the day came from Sheuneen Ta, Sammy Sanderson, Rachael Rigamat, Akilah Moore, and several other players.

This week UM takes on FIU in their final non-conference game on Wednesday and then head to Tallahassee on Sunday for a key conference game. Look back for updates on the outcome of those 2 games, hopefully I get something up sooner after the game than this one.

Another ranked team falls at the hands of UM

2007-10-12T10:51:00.000-07:00

Another soccer game last night and another ranked team leaves Miami with a loss. This weeks victim was number 4 ranked Boston College. It was a great game and UM pulled out the victory in the final minutes for a 1-0 win. Both teams appeared very equal on the field and the one goal resulted from some heavy pressure by the Canes that ended with a BC player putting the ball in the back of her own goal for an own goal. UM deserves a lot of credit for the goal though. It actually rather unfortunate that no UM player got credit for the goal because it was their hard work that led to the goal and not really a mistake on BC's part.

The shutout gave Lauren McAdam her 3rd shutout of the season and 13th of her career. Considering the opposition that the Canes have been facing this season this is a great number. She was solid once again last night and definitely earned the shutout. The entire defense played well amid some fierce pressure at times.

On the offensive side of the ball the Canes had yet another solid game. Everybody played well and kept good pressure on the BC defense. Overall the team played well and there was some very good ball movement going on out there last night. They looked like a great team that is really getting to know how to play together. This leads me to believe that their are many more upsets to come and that this is just the beginning of a very promising season.

A little comedy

2007-10-10T11:21:00.001-07:00

OK folks it's time to add something a little funnier to this blog. I was watching ESPN News last night, they were showing the Contender on ESPN and I needed my sports news fix. Anyways, they showed this commercial made by a Norman, Oklahoma car dealer, Fowler Toyota, making fun of the recent rant by Oklahoma State football coach Mike Gundy. For those of you that haven't seen the original rant need to check it out here. You have to check out the original or the commercial really isn't that funny. So before you check out the video below make sure you refresh your memory on the original.

I can't seem to figure out how to get a YouTube video up on here. You would think they would make it easy since Blogger and YouTube are both owned by Google but oh well here's the link. It worth a good laugh if nothing else and is a very creative idea in my opinion. It would only work in Oklahoma for the most part but it's refreshing to see some creativity in commercials.

UM Soccer ACC Week 2

2007-10-08T08:22:00.000-07:00

The UM soccer team went on the road last week to Virginia. On Thusday they took on Virginia Tech and then on Sunday they had a match against 4th ranked Virginia. I didn't go to the matches or anything so I won't comment on the teams performance or anything just want to keep everybody up to date on the team a little. On Thrusday they tied 1-1 with VT and then on Sunday they lost 0-1 in 2 overtimes to Virginia. The VT game also went into 2 overtimes but nothing was settled after that so they ended with a tie.

The goal fo UM on Thursday was scored by super-freshman Brittney Steinbruch, her 12th of the season. This pace is just incredible. After she was held scoreless in the Virginia game it brought her pace down to 1 goal a game, a very impressive number. I'll keep this short since I can't really say much about the game themselves but congrats to UM for putting up 2 more impressive showings against some very tough opponents.

A Long Overdue Post

2007-10-08T07:04:00.000-07:00

Well I'm back after way to long away. I don't really have a good excuse just school and life keeping me busy is all. It's playoff time in baseball, football is starting to get interesting and of course the most important thing, hockey has started. OK I actually don't care about hockey at all I just thought I would mention it at least once in this blog.

Baseball seems like it would be the best thing to talk about so that's what I'm going for today. I'm thinking MLB isn't to happy with the way the playoffs are going so far, especially on the NL side. Not only did both the Rockies and the Diamondbacks sweep the Phillies and Cardinals respectively but they are probably the 2 least popular teams in the playoffs. There is very little question in my mind that from a marketing standpoint the league would have much rather had the Cubs moving on to the next round. The media buzz about the Cubs potentially breaking their nearly century long curse would have been just as high as the buzz around the Red Sox pulling off the same feat 3 years ago.

The AL is looking a little better for the league. The giant fan base of Red Sox nation still has a team to root for after a 3 game sweep of the Angels. The Yankees seem to want to put up a fight at least against Cleveland but I think in the end the Yankess will run out of starting pitching and lose that series. That would leave an Indians Red Sox series in the next round which isn't all that bad. The Indians are somewhat the anit-Sox so all the people that have gotten sick of Red Sox nation, I consider myself a member of the anti-Red Sox movement, will have someone to root for.

The NL teams do make a good story though if the media would put in the time to look at the teams. Both teams have lots of young talent and have worked hard all season under low salaries and minimal media coverage. The Rockies have both an MVP candidate in Matt Holliday and one of the leading candidates for Rookie of the Year in Troy Tulowitzki, you wouldn't know it by watching ESPN though. I still think Ryan Braun should win Rookie of the Year but Tulowitzki has had a great season.

The Diamondbacks have a lot of of no name guys that play like a great team. Their biggest names are Eric Byrnes and Brandon Webb but other than that there aren't a lot of guys on the team that you would hear there name and immediately think "wow that's a great baseball player." You get the feeling from watching the D-Backs play that they like that.

In conclusion, I just want to urge you to go against the media hype and check out the National League Championship Series. It kicks off on Thursday on TBS and if you are looking to just watch good baseball then that will be a great place to see it. Alright more will be coming soon I promise no more long breaks like last time.

UM Pulls the Upset

2007-09-30T16:20:00.000-07:00

It's been a great weekend for UM sports. First on Saturday the football team beat Duke. Then on Sunday the real upset happen. The UM women's soccer team beat the 7th ranked team in the nation, the North Carolina Tar Heels. The football team didn't look all that great at times but they got the win so that's all the matters if you ask me. I would much rather write about the soccer teams win.

For those of you that aren't very knowledgeable on women's collegiate soccer let me put this into context a little. Not only was UNC ranked number 7 but they are also the defending national champions. Combine that with the fact that last year UM went to UNC and got beat 6-1 last year this win has a whole lot of meaning. Plus, as if any more reason to celebrate this win was needed, the Hurricanes are now in first place in the ACC and the only team without a loss in ACC play. Yes it is a young season but it's a lot better to start on top than on the bottom.

The team did pretty much everything right today to hold the Tar Heels without a goal and they looked like very equally matched teams. Miami's goal was scored by the impressing freshman Brittney Steinbruch. It was Steinbruch's 11th goal of the season which is a very impressive number considering that this was only the 10th game of the season. Also the defense shone brightly withstanding fierce pressure from the Tar Heels potent offense on many occasions. This included key defensive plays by Sammy Sanderson, a small but highly energetic defender that doesn't seem to be intimidated by anyone. The defense seemed to be at their best when it was needed most. Every time North Carolina got the ball into the box they were swarmed by UM players and before long the ball was sent skyward the opposite way down the field. Not surprisingly UM was helped by several impressive saves from Lauren McAdam. I know I mention Lauren every time I talk about the soccer team but that is because she impresses me every time I see her in action.

UM hits the road next week but returns back to Cobb Stadium on October 11th to take on Boston College. Look for more updates coming soon.

After over a year and a half the running shoes have been replaced

2007-09-28T17:29:00.000-07:00

I finally did it. I got off work today and went on a mission for new running shoes. It wasn't really a mission since I only went to one place, but when the place you go has everything you want to look at then why go anywhere else. I went to Footworks which is just behind the Sunset Mall for anyone that is familiar with Miami.

Footworks is a great store that is all about running. They don't have a giant selection of shoes but they have all the shoes that matter. They don't have many shoes like Nike Shox or Airs but those aren't real running shoes anyways they just call them running shoes so that they have a category to list them in. Plus Footworks provides something that the bigger stores don't. That is service. Everyone that works their knows what they are talking about and can give you advice from their own experience not just what some advertising campaign says.

So when I went in there I knew I wanted to look at Asics Gel-Kayano 13, I've had 2 different versions of this shoe and have been very satisfied, and I also wanted to take a look at the Brooks Trance 7 since Runner's World strongly recommended it. I tried both of them out and gave them both a little jog in the store. The Brooks felt lighter and seemed to breath a little more than the Asics. The Asics on the other had felt like it had more support and definitely had more cushioning in it.

My theory when choosing shoes is that your foot will tell you what you should get. They did and the Asics won out. This was also due to the fact that I have had great success with the previous 2 pairs that I have had and have never had an injury even with all the running that I do. So I walked out of the store with a brand new pair of $135 Asics Gel-Kayano 13s and it is worth every dollar I promise.

I of course had to go out and get my first run in them and I wasn't disappointed. I ran 4 and a half miles tonight and realized that they needed to be broken in a little but the shoes provided great support, a good bounce under my foot, and felt good the whole way. My only complaint is that they are to white and look way to clean. That is because they are new though a few good puddles will fix that problem. I'll keep you all updated on how they work out for me but I expect nothing but good things.

UM soccer, ACC style

2007-09-27T19:19:00.000-07:00

Well folks I went to another soccer game tonight. It was the ACC opener for UM and they played NC State. UM won 2-1 and looked like a very good team tonight.

It seems that the young players are starting to mesh with the verterans and the ball movement was very impressive at times. Another good performance by goalie Lauren McAdam and some great offensive play made for a very good looking team. The improvements over the USF game were major. I think a lot of credit needs to go to the coaching staff for that and they did a great job.

This was just the warm-up to this weekend though. The North Carolina Tar heels come to town on Sunday and will be by far the biggest home game of the season so far. UNC is ranked 6th in the nation and are the defending national champs. I'm certainly planning on bieng their and I will give you all an update of how it goes. If UM plays like they did tonight it will make for a very good game. Stay tuned for more.

Sharkwater

2007-09-25T19:43:00.000-07:00

Ok, this is my third attempt at this one.

Last Saturday I found myself on campus for a movie. The movie was called Sharkwater and Rob Stewart was the director. Most of you probably haven't heard of it but I defenitly reccomend you see it. It is a documentary about sharks and more specifically shark finning and the consequences the trade of shark fins could have on the environment.

This movie features some stunning video of sharks and the ocean in general. It is a very informative movie that teaches you a lot most people probably don't know about sharks and their role in the ocean's ecosystem. For example if you take sharks out of the ocean you are greatly risking lowering the amount of oxygen we have to breath. This is because sharks control the population of plankton eating fish and the plankton provide a very large amount of oxygen.

Not only is the movie educational but it is also very well done and entertaining. No one I talked to didn't have an emotional response from this movie. It is by far the best documentary I have ever seen and it supports a very good cause. I greatly reccomend you check it out.

I'm back after a few days

2007-09-23T15:45:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't posted for a few days. Life has been a little crazy. I have a test on Monday night and then one on Tuesday morning so I have been studying most of the weekend. Taking a little break right now. Of course me being busy means that the running is taking a hit. I forced myself to go out today between rain storms and get a good 6 mile run in. It felt great and got me ready for a night of studying. Well as ready as I could ever be for something boring and tedious like that.

The run was fairly good. Realizing that I need to get some new shoes soon. The Asics are starting to die on me. Still have a few good miles in them though. Time to start shopping around though to figure out what the next pair will be. The Gel Kayanos have treated me real well so they have the early advantage. Open to suggestions on that though.

Well that's about all I have for the night. I will post a lot better one tomorrow on something a lot more important than shoes so be on the lookout for that.

The U making a statement

2007-09-20T17:32:00.000-07:00

Well I've taken a couple of days off. Mostly because there hasn't been a whole lot to talk about. A quick check of the ESPN front page shows nothing all that important. Floyd Landis lost his case. No shock there honestly. A little more talk about Bill Belichick, that story is overplayed now that's for sure. Oh and finally Ken Griffey Jr. is hurt again. So looks like I'm going to have to think outside the box.

I'm watching the UM vs. Texas A&M game as I type this so why not give my opinion on the Miami football team. I'll openly admit I wasn't a Miami fan before I came to school here so I haven't experienced any of the really good times as a Canes fan. I have however seen my fair share of victories and also disappointing defeats.

Let me start off by saying that I wanted Randy Shannon as the head coach before he was even named a candidate. The decision to hire him was one of the best the UM Athletic Department has made in quite a while. Shannon has given the team a makeover to tighten things up and it seems to have translated to the field. Yes they did get embarrassed by Oklahoma but a loss there was expected. Overall they have looked like a better more disciplined team than last year and I think a lot of credit for that should go to Shannon.

14-0 now and Miami just got an interception. They are looking real good tonight. Hopefully they can carry this through the rest of the night and into the rest of the season.

GO CANES!!!!!!!

Mark Ecko is a genius

2007-09-17T18:56:00.000-07:00

For those of you who haven't heard the news yet the buyer of Barry Bonds' 756th home run ball was Mark Ecko. The same guy behind the Ecko clothing line. I'm not a big fan of his clothes but he has done a great job of spreading his name and making himself a big player in the urban clothing market. Well his marketing excellence is on display once again.

He paid over $750,000 for the ball and now he is going to give it away. That is not the beauty of his plan though. He is making it an online vote as to what he does with the ball. With 2 of the choices the ball will end up in the hall of fame, one as is and the other with a asterisk on the ball. The third option would send it into space, otherwise known as just getting rid of it.

So why would a man spend that much money just to give it away? Well one he can afford it. Secondly, he is going to get a lot more value out of it. The second you vote you can go to his website and the fact that his company is named after him means he get all kinds of free publicity. This is all positive publicity and it's all free for him. As long as he plays his cards right he will have 3 peak days of publicity and lots more in between. The timing has to be right for everything. This is the first day, the second day will be when the winning choice is announced, and the 3rd will be when he donates it to Cooperstown. I'm positive he will make sure there are lots of cameras around for his delivery. There are a lot of people that could learn from his example. Congrats to Mark Ecko for being an amazing businessman.

Running is supposed to be relaxing right????

2007-09-17T13:20:00.000-07:00

OK, last night after a couple days off I went out and ran. I tried to make up for the time off and went for the 6 mile loop that I have discovered. If nothing else the distance made my weekly running total look decent. I was glad I got out there and did it but it didn't have the relaxing side effects that a lot of my runs have. This is due to several factors:

1) The heat index was at a nice cool 91 degrees. Needless to say my shirt was pretty well soaked through with sweat by the end. I went out and bought a couple NikeFit shirts to get the moisture off my skin but I quickly discovered that they only work for so long before their is just to much moisture. I really enjoy a good sweat though it just makes me feel like I have actually achieved something. A nice cool breeze would be a welcome addition though.

2) Their are way to many cars in south Florida. One road that I run along is what I guess you would call a major side road but it is still only a 2 lane street. Their are just a whole lot of cars on it. In order to make my route six miles I have to cross this road 4 times. Otherwise it would only be 5 and a half miles if I didn't add in 2 trips around a little loop. So the stress of trying not to get run over isn't really necessary but I figure if I'm going to run down here I'm going have to live with it.

3) Everyone in south Florida has a dog. Now I don't have a problem with that. Your pets are your business. It's when the people are talking on their cell phone and not really paying attention to what their dog is doing and how far its leash is stretched out. Their are also the people that know what their dog is doing and just don't care. I usually give every dog a nice wide gap to avoid tripping over a leash or the dog itself. Plus that avoids the risk of the dog suddenly turning into Cujo and biting me.

All in all this makes it hard to zone out and just get lost in my thoughts. I'm very quickly realizing that is one of my favorite parts of running, the fact that you can just completely glaze you eyes over and sort everything out in your head. I'm having a much harder time doing that lately though with the obstacle course that is my running route. Sometimes when I run I feel like I'm playing that old Nintendo game Paperboy. Don't worry faithful readers it's going to take a lot more than a few dogs and cars to break my running habit. Now it's time for class.

College Football Week 3

2007-09-16T11:29:00.000-07:00

Yet another week of college football has ended. There were several scares for the top teams and several upsets;
Louisville got upset by Kentucky
Arkansas got upset by Alabama
UCLA got embarrassed by Utah
Georgia Tech lost to a lower ranked team in Boston College

Besides the UCLA upset none of these are completely shocking but it does serve as further proof that the people that make the polls don't know much. I'm a big fan of the idea that a poll shouldn't be released until about the first week of October. They are just way to important to have teams be ranked this early with so little information out there about them. Pretty much anyone can look at the polls at the start of the season and tell that the rankings are more influenced by the school's name more than the actual players they have on the field.

When national championships are decided by polls they should be based on the performance on the field and not the logo on the helmet. I can almost guarantee that their wouldn't be nearly as much controversy with the BCS if the polls didn't come out until a few weeks into the season. So until we actually get a legitimate playoff system in college football they at least need to tweak the polling system.

OK, I'm done ranting now. Back to watching the Colts and the Titans.

College Women's Soccer

2007-09-14T21:19:00.000-07:00

Tonight I went to the first home game for the UM women's soccer team. They played University of South Florida and UM lost 3-2. It was a game that UM probably should have won but a few tough breaks went against them and in the end they couldn't get the victory. In my opinion they did look like the better team on the field.

Within the game I was very impressed by the performance of Um midfielder Sheuneen Ta. She posses a remarkable amount of on ball handling skills. She adds a fair amount of excitement to the game, something that isn't really thought about when you think of women's soccer. I'm not in any way experienced enough with soccer though to really critique anything that she does or doesn't do but I would like to see her attack the goal more.

Also when a person watched UM soccer they can't help but notice or hear the intensity that goal keeper Lauren McAdam brings to the game. She always commands the defense in front of her and seems very effective in her leadership most of the time. She is also very fearless in the way she plays and definitely needs to be congratulated for that.

Now on to what I observed. The crowd was a pretty good sized one. This was the first home match of the season so a decent crowd would be much more likely. Also it was against a somewhat local opponent so their was a decent sized contingent from USF there. Now the real question to be answered is will the team keep to draw decent crowds or will they fall off. The crowd will certainly be smaller on Sunday. The game is at 1 in the afternoon and I'm not even that crazy to go to a game at that time of the day in south Florida.

I'm always intrigued by the types of crowds at the non-major collegiate sports, especially the women's events. Usually it's a lot of family members and kids. Heck at $5 a person it makes for a cheap night of entertainment for a family, especially in south Florida. The crowds are never all that enthusiastic though. I like to think that is because they are more their to enjoy the sport rather than to scream their hearts out like some sports fan seem to want to do. I don't think the relative lack of cheering is a bad thing as long as the people are enjoying the game. Of course it can be more fun with a loud cheering crowd. What I would like to see now is a loyal fan base being built for sports like soccer. They can be just as good of entertainment as a football or basketball game just people don't know about it. A winning team always helps though and UM isn't off to a good start in that respect.

I would encourage anyone that reads this to go out to some of the collegiate sports that don't draw big crowds. It's like going to a bar to see a live band. You get an intimate experience and a lot of the same enjoyment as a big time show.

The Running Log

2007-09-14T08:16:00.000-07:00

As my first action on this blog I added a summary of my running log over on the side. This is linked directly to my running log on Runner's World. Now to all my fellow runners I reccomend this thing b/c A. it's free and B. it's pretty useful to keep track of everything.

Now I have 2 reasons for putting it up. First, the information it may be relevant to some of my posts so maybe it will help you understand what I am talking about a little better. My second reason is I hope it motivates me a little more to go out and run if I know it's all public whether I have been running or not. It is certainly in no way me trying to show off. If it was it would be a horrible idea b/c I don't plan on hardly ever running more than 25 miles in a week and I know there are a lot of people that run that in a day at times. As a side note I started using it on August 15th so that is when the numbers for the year and overall total start.

The real question now is will it work? I usually don't need motivation to run but when it's hot and humid like it has been lately I need a little extra. Trust me when it finally cools down some the numbers will look a lot better. So that should explain the reasons for the running log.

Introductions are a necessity

2007-09-14T07:08:00.000-07:00

OK, so here it is. I thought why not start a blog myself. Might as well move the world one more blog closer to actually overflowing the Internet. I'll do my best to do my part.

Now for the introduction part of this. I am currently a senior at the University of Miami. I am studying Sport Administration and it should come as no surprise to any one sports consumes a large part of my life. My biggest passion is baseball and I hope to be working in professional baseball very soon. Besides also going to school I spend time running and just generally trying to enjoy life while I can.

Now you might be wondering what you can expect from this blog. Most of it will be sports related. At times I will discuss running and my thoughts on my experiences and thoughts on the whole activity. Then at other times I might just go on a random tangent and talk about something completely unrelated to either thing.

My goal with this blog isn't to waste your time it is to simply voice some of my opinions and maybe generate some discussion on different things. So I greatly encourage people to comment and to stay tuned to what's to come.