Radio Experience and an Amazing Article

October 30, 2006

I had yet another unusual radio experience today.

On my way to work, the last song I heard was Chicago’s “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?” A good song, that I like to sing along with (by the way, I’m working on a theory that there is a correlation between level of happiness and amount of singing done in your car. I believe they are positively correlated, but I have yet to do any research). Anyway, I get into work and eventually leave at 5 PM. I get in my car and turn on the radio. The song that is playing? You guessed it, Chicago’s “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?”

On a completely different subject. You absolutely need to read this article here. I opened it up pensively because when articles are posted from non-regular writers on ESPN’s Page 2 they tend to be very hit or miss. It turns out that Mr. Barone’s article is a huge hit. I read through it and I got chills/goosebumps for 5 minutes (not an exageration). It touched me like no other article has ever done. Therefore, I have named it, “Best Article of All Time.”


2006 Baseball Preview (In Review)

October 29, 2006

Mike’s 2006 Baseball Preview (Review)

Back on February 8th, I posted a blog of my predictions for the 2006 Baseball season. Now that the season has concluded, I am going back over the predictions and checking how I fared.

So you know, anything you see in BLACK is my original prediction. Anything seen in RED is my review of the predictions. So, without further delay…

AL East

1) Yankees (92-70) Actual (97-65)

The Good News: The Yanks have a dynamic line-up that has only been enhanced by the addition of Johnny Damon. Now their line-up features both speed and pop. It turned out that the Yankees did have a feared line-up this year. Not really a big prediction, but I’ll take it anyway.

The Bad News: The Yanks starting rotation has a couple of question marks. Is Randy Johnson going to return to his dominant form? Who the heck is Chein-Ming Wang? Who is going to be the fifth starter? The pitching staff was the problem for the Yankees this year. I shouldn’t have question Chein-Ming Wang, he is a solid groundball pitcher and was the best Yankee pitcher this year.

Overall: Look for the Yankees to slide into the playoffs from a surprisingly weak AL East division and then get bounced in the first round. Hey! The Yankees did win a bad AL East and then got knocked out of the playoffs in the first round. Am I the next Nosferatu?

2) Red Sox (89-73) [Wild Card] Actual (86-76)

The Good News: The Red Sox pulled off one the biggest moves this off-season that no one talked about. The Red Sox landed 2B Mark Loretta. Loretta is one of the best (if not the best) second basemen in the game. Look for him to set the tables for the big men in the Boston line-up. I still like the pick of Loretta, but the other Red Sox moves ultimately knocked them out of playoff contention.

The Bad News: How is the team going to congeal? They have brought in 5 new people to their starting line-up and one new starting pitcher. Is Manny going to affect the other players attitude? How is Mike Lowell still getting work? Mike Lowell proved that he does indeed deserve work. Manny wasn’t a problem. But the team was afflicted with injuries and the team never congealed.

Overall: Watch as the Red Sox sneak in with the wild card spot once again, but don’t be surprised if they don’t make the playoffs. They were borderline to make the playoffs in my mind and they ultimately ended up missing out.

3) Orioles (84-78) Actual (70-92)

The Good News: Ramon Hernandez is a fantastic catcher who will flourish in Camden Yards. The team has added a solid leader in Kevin Millar. Also, Corey Patterson has the potential to put up some gaudy numbers (or become the next Ben Grieve). The starting rotation is the deepest in the AL East (despite the lack of a clear #1 starter). Ramon Hernandez started off pretty hot, be fell off in the second half of the year. Corey Patterson did post some solid numbers and looks like his career might be back on track. What the hell was I thinking about the pitching staff???

The Bad News: The Orioles have a lot of slow moving players on this team (2 catchers in the starting line-up). Their corner outfielders aren’t the best. And who is in the bullpen? Not only were all these problems, but the O’s also had more problems that I didn’t notice.

Overall: This team has the potential to upset a few of the other teams and be in the Wild card chase of a while. I just don’t think they have enough to make the playoffs though. Yeah, they were in the wild card chase for about a week or so. Good call on this one dip shit.

 

4) Blue Jays (81-81) Actual (87-75)

The Good News: The off-season acquisitions of Benjie Molina and Lyle Overbay will improve the team tremendously. Troy Glaus has the potential to be an offensive juggernaut. The Blue Jays also have the best #1 starter in the AL East (Roy Halladay). Overbay and Glaus powered this team through the all-star break and the team looked like it could contend for a while.

The Bad News: The Blue Jays threw away a lot of money by signing A.J. Burnett and B.J. Ryan (neither of them is anywhere near worth what the Blue Jays gave them). The defense is going to be rough. Troy Glaus doesnt cover much ground, they gave up defensive stud Orlando Hudson, and Russ Adams isnt polished at shortstop. Also, the corner outfielders are horrible. Reed Johnson? Alex Rios? You cant take a team seriously when they start players like that. A.J. Burnett was indeed a bust as predicted. B.J. Ryan did a great job at proving me wrong. Alexis Rios turned out to be a stud until he got injured.

Overall: A lot of people are hyping up the Jays as serious contenders this year just because they got the gems of the free agent market. Look back at recent history. Whens the last time a team got the top free agent and went on to the World Series? It has definitely been a while. Look for the Jays to disappoint and miss the playoffs. In a best case scenario, they will be a .500 team. Looks like they out shown my best-case scenario and pulled out a second place finish.

5) Devil Rays (64-98) Actual (61-101)

The Good News: They have a young talented starting line-up. Their middle infield is very good and highly underrated (Jorge Cantu and Julio Lugo). They have some solid defense in the aforementioned infielders and at first base (Travis Lee). They dumped quite a bit of the line-up to make way for some youngsters. Julio Lugo got sent to the Dodgers. Travis Lee disappeared off the face of the earth. The team ended up being one of the worst offenses.

The Bad News: Do they even have a pitching staff? Honestly, name a single person on the Rays staff. Their number one pitcher is a 22 year old (Scott Kazmir). They have a rookie slated to be their closer (Shinji Mori). Once again, a guy I questioned turned out to be a stud. Scott Kasmir rocked the house this year. Too bad my judgment of the rest of the staff was accurate.

Overall: If they had some sort of pitch staff, this team could compete to get out of the cellar. As the team stands right now, it’s going to be another miserable season. (Maybe they can turn it around for when they change their team name, 2007). This was a pretty no-brainer prediction. Everyone knew the Rays would be in last place.

AL Central

1) White Sox (88-74) Actual (90-72)

The Good News: The White Sox return one of the top pitching staffs of 2005. The addition of Javier Vazquez is solid. Paul Konerko resigning was the biggest off-season move this year. Jim Thome can provide a little bit more pop to the Sox line-up. Konerko and Thome provided pop along with Dye, but the pitching staff fell off from 2005.

The Bad News: The Sox traded Aaron Rowand for Thome. Rowand was a stud defensively in center and added some timely hits. Thome is the new Frank Thomas. Just like Frank, Jim is prone to being injured. Didn’t Thome get injured in the second half of the year? The sox could have used the extra defense and heart that Rowand brought to the ballclub.

Overall: The White Sox will win the division, but the magic of last year is gone. They will not make the World Series this year. Well, I was half right. The Sox didn’t win the series. But they came in third place in a surprisingly tough division.

2) Tigers (84-78) Actual (96-66)

The Good News: The Tigers have a potentially scary line-up that could terrorize the AL Central if healthy. Pudge Rodriguez, Carlos Guillen, and Magglio Ordonez are bona fide superstars. The Tigers pitching staff has a young stud in Jeremy Bonderman and a solid veteran in Kenny Rogers. The veterans and youngin’s played up to their potential.

The Bad News: The Tigers have some gaping holes in their lineup. Who the hell are Nook Logan and Chris Shelton? The Tiger rotation gets weak after Bonderman and Rogers. Is Todd Jones going to repeat is stellar season last year or will he drop off? Chris Shelton started the season hot, but died off to the point that he wasn’t even on the playoff roster. Logan became non-existant with the arrival of Curtis Granderson. The rotation turned out strong performances, particularly Verlander and Zumaya.

Overall: If the team gets/stays healthy and the pitching staff holds together, the Tigers season should play out similarly to the Brewers of last year (i.e. first time being competitive in recent memory). This prediction was too optimistic for most people at the beginning of the season. It turns out that not only were the Tigers competitive, but they took it all the way to the World Series.

3) Indians (80-82) Actual (78-84)

The Good News: Their young talent has shown just how good they can be. Surely another year will lead to a further improvement in their game. Cliff Lee and C.C. Sabathia return to the pitching staff. The young players looked like 2005 might have been a fluke season.

The Bad News: They decided to make trades this winter. They have replaced Coco Crisp with Jason Michaels? They brought in Paul Byrd and Jason Johnson to improve the pitching staff. Terrible trades did kill the Indians this year.

Overall: The break out team of 2005 has decided that success doesn’t quite fit their current image and have decided to regress and not contend this season. I hit the nail right on the head with this one.

4) Twins (76-86) Actual (96-66)

The Good News: Luis Castillo can be a spark plug for the offense. Their pitching staff is decent (Johan Santana is a stud). And it seems as though everyone is starting this season healthy. They get to leave the Metrodome soon. A lot of things went right for the Twins for both their offense and pitching.

The Bad News: The left side of the infield is rough (Jason Bartlett and Tony Batista). Their new DH, Rondell White, has never been anything above average. Injuries have hampered the team in the past; will they be able to overcome them? Bartlett turned in a good performance hitting around .300 for the season. They overcame the one injury that mattered (Francisco Liriano for those not in the know).

Overall: This team has some potential and could be a .500 team or so, but there’s something about this team that makes me think they aren’t going to compete seriously. I flat out blew this call. The Twins won the division and I had them ending up under .500.

5) Royals (62-100) Actual (62-100) [Yeah, I got it right on the nose!]

The Good News: They actually brought in outside talent. New additions include Reggie Sanders, Joe Mays, Scott Elarton, Mark Redman, Mark Grudzielanek, and Doug Mientkiewicz. The operative word here being “talent.” None of these can really be considered all that talented (but they are all better than me to say the least). I did like the Berroa to Grudzielanek to Mientkiewicz double play tandem. It’s like a modern Tinkers to Evers to Chance.

The Bad News: Their starting line-up includes John Buck, Angel Berroa, Mark Teahen, David DeJesus, and Emil Brown. Not what I would consider an imposing line-up. Their pitching staff is just about on the same level. Yeah, they suck.

Overall: Yet another forgettable season from the Royals. But, there is hope, just look at the Brewers and Tigers. Some bad teams are starting to turn things around. The Royals just need to make the right decisions. The Royals got a new GM who had a track record of getting things done. Now comes the task of building up the farm system and picking up overlooked free agents (That’s how the A’s and Twins have become winners).

AL West

1) A’s (96-66) Actual (93-69)

The Good News: The As actually brought in free agents this year instead of just seeing them go. The big news was the A’s signing Esteban Loaiza and Frank Thomas. In addition, the A’s brought in Milton Bradley, a potential superstar (or nightmare). The A’s had an amazing class of rookies come through last year and look to continue their success this year. On top of all this, the A’s have the best pitching staff in the majors. Frank Thomas blew up to perform like the Thomas of old. Milton Bradley put in a pretty standard Bradley season, except for the outbursts. The A’s rookies from 2005 included Dan Johnson, Nick Swisher, and Huston Street. Two out of the three were good contributors this season (Dan Johnson spent most the season in AAA praying to Joe Boo [i.e. he can’t hit a curveball]).

The Bad News: The potential for injuries is there. Thomas is nicknamed the Big Hurt for a reason. Bradley spent a lot of time on the DL last year. Bobby Crosby and Rich Harden are both coming of injury laden years. Jason Kendall is a 32-year-old catcher. The injuries came earlier and came often. Here’s the names of players who spent at least some time on the disabled list; Thomas, Crosby, Ellis, Chavez, Harden, Kotsay, Bradley, Loaiza. Yeah, that’s pretty much an entire team.

Overall: This is the team to beat this year. Only injuries can hold the team from the World Series this year. The injuries hurt them through out the season and eventually killed them in the ALCS against the Tigers (The A’s starting SS and 2B were both injured, leaving Marco Scutaro and D’Angelo Jimenz to play the positions).

2) Rangers (84-78) Actual (80-82)

The Good News: The offense could be better than it was last year. Brad Wilkerson has the potential to have a huge year. They actually tried to address the pitching concerns this year. Wilkerson didn’t do much this year except try to get healthy. The prediction of good offense in Texas is like the prediction of it being hot in Texas in the summer. It’s going to happen no matter who’s out there.

The Bad News: The pitchers picked up are really hit or miss. At times they are brilliant at other times, well, they’re not so good. Another big question is the second baseman, Ian Kinsler (a rookie). On top of this, I am suspicious of the outfield outside of Wilkerson. The pitching staff did improve, but not enough to make them competitive.

Overall: Look for the Rangers to improve and stay in the Wild Card hunt, but their pitching doesn’t have the strength to lead them through the playoffs. They did stay in the AL West race for a while, but ultimately didn’t have the goods to stick it out through September.

3) Angels (82-80) Actual (89-73)

The Good News: They still have Vladimir Guerrero. Their pitching staff was good last year and most of the pitchers are returning this year. This was all true, and they had some rookies come up to fill in and help the team out.

The Bad News: The Angels did nothing to improve on last year’s team and actually let key free agents go. While most of the key pitchers have returned, I believe that a lot of their success was due to Benjie Molinas game calling. The loss of Jarrod Washburn will hurt. How is Darrin Erstad going to do out in center again? The team was in a transition year. Now they have some really solid rookies in place.

Overall: They have gone from a really good team to a mediocre one by lack of moves. Look for them to flounder around .500 most the season. They did manage to play above .500 and did a bit better than my prediction.

4) Mariners (81-81) Actual (78-84)

The Good News: The Mariners picked one of the most interesting acquisitions this off-season, Kenji Johjima. He was a stud catcher while in Japan; he should make a positive impact for the team (Having Ichiro as a teammate will help in adapting to the new culture). The pitching staff has some great potential too. Johjima did put in a good year.

The Bad News: The lineup is bad. Outside of Ichiro and Richie Sexton, there isn’t a consistently good player. Look at some of the projected starters: 2B Jose Lopez, SS Yuniesky Betancourt, 3B Adrian Beltre, LF Raul Ibanez, DH Carl Everett. Jose Lopez proved my wrong this season (and so did Sexton, but in the opposite direction).

Overall: If all the players that I listed above have really good years, the Mariners could make the playoffs. They certainly will be better this year than last. The Mariners did have an all right season and were in the AL West hunt for a while. I’d say they pretty much lived up to my prediction.

NL East

1) Braves (88-74) Actual (79-83)

The Good News: The team that won the division last year has returned with an improvement. Edgar Renteria is now the shortstop. He is an improvement over Rafael Furcal, believe me. In addition to that, the Braves bring back a really good pitching staff headed by John Smoltz and Tim Hudson. I’d agree with all that except the whole pitching staff part.

The Bad News: The Braves have some question marks in the bullpen (i.e. who is the closer?). Also, will Johnny Estrada’s exodus hurt the team and if so, by how much? The closer question did end up hurting the team.

Overall: I don’t see how anyone could pick any other team to win the NL East. When’s the last time the Braves didn’t win this division? Oops, I did the old base the future on past performance. I should’ve known better from my investment background.

2) Mets (85-77) Actual (97-65)

The Good News: The made some of the most publicized moves this off-season, bringing in Carlos Delgado, Paul LoDuca, and Billy Wagner. The line-up does have some potential to blow out some teams. The line-up rocked and the pitching staff actually did a good job.

The Bad News: The pitching staff is bad. Outside of Pedro Martinez (if he’s healthy), there aren’t any really good pitchers. They are all either has-beens or never will-bes. The middle infield isn’t very good. And who is going to be out in RF? Man, I look really bad here. Let’s move on.

Overall: The Mets have this psychological thing about having to keep up with the Yankees. It seems like every year, the Mets try to buy a team just to show New York who can throw the money around. The problem is, every year the Mets end up disappointing. The size and publicity of this year’s moves have set up one of the greatest disappointments ever. Look for the Mets to struggle in 2006. The Mets did disappoint in the end, but they got further than I give them credit for. This is probably my biggest shame of the predictions.

3) Phillies (77-85) Actual (85-77)

The Good News: The Phillies picked up Aaron Rowand and got rid of Jim Thomes contract all in one move. Now the Phillies have the best outfield in the majors (The Reds might be as good). Ryan Howard should build upon his rookie of the year season. Ryan Howard building upon his rookie season is a bit of an understatement. The dude led all of MLB in homeruns with 58.

The Bad News: The rest of the team doesn’t stack up favorably with other teams. The pitching staff leaves something to be desired (Like an ace). Mike Lieberthal is getting old. And has David Bell ever been a good solution at Third? Yeah, these things did hamper them.

Overall: This could be a rough year for Phillie fans. Look for the Phils to make a trade or two before the deadline and maybe compete. They made a couple of deals and did a lot better than I gave them credit for.

4) Nationals (76-86) Actual (71-91)

The Good News: They have Alfonso Soriano on the team now. He tends to put up good numbers (if you ignore the strike out tally). A lot of players from last year have return to the team this year. And Washington looks like it’ll be getting a new stadium in the near future. Soriano blew up this season. I’d assume it’s so he could get a big payday next year.

The Bad News: Alfonso Soriano is already putting on the diva act. That is going to where on the clubhouse, guaranteed. Also, the Nats have a rookie starting at 3B. This could be good, but most likely it will be bad. Apparently, my guarantee isn’t worth shit. Ryan Zimmerman turned out to be a real stud at 3rd.

Overall: Look for Washington to unload Soriano to an American league team in the hunt, who need some power. The Nats wont be very competitive this year. The Nats weren’t competitive this year, but the Soriano trade never manifested.

5) Marlins (55-109) Actual (78-84)

The Good News: Well they have a good chance of one of their players taking home the Rookie of the Year award (there are 6 rookies projected into their starting line-up/starting rotation). This still looks like a safe bet.

The Bad News: Unless all the rookies turn out to be super-studs, the team is going to be miserable. Hey, they did turn out to be super-studs.

Overall: Look for the Heat to make the Eastern Conference Finals, maybe moving onto the NBA finals The Heat did win the NBA finals last year. Too bad my prediction for the Marlins couldn’t have been better.

NL Central

1) Cardinals (90-72) Actual (83-78)

The Good News: The Cardinals open up a new Busch Stadium this year. Along with the new stadium, they are bringing in a few new faces (Junior Spivey, Juan Encarnacion, and Sidney Ponson). Look for Encarnacion to flourish batting behind Albert Pujols and a healthy Scott Rolen. The new faces didn’t perform at the pace the Cards would have hoped for.

The Bad News: Larry Bigbie is going to have a tough time replacing Reggie Sanders. Another question is, how healthy is Scott Rolen going to be? Rolen was hurting most of the year, but did turn it on in the postseason.

Overall: The Cards are once again the best team in the NL. Look for them to make the playoffs and likely go to the World Series. Well, they won the World Series…

2) Brewers (86-76) [Wild card] Actual (75-87)

The Good News: The Brewers had a great year last year and this year look to be improving upon it. Prince Fielder will finally take over duties at first base. The outfield is among the tops in the majors (Carlos Lee, Brady Clark, and Geoff Jenkins). The pitching staff looks like it may be strong this year. Looks like I might have been too optimistic on this team.

The Bad News: The left side of the infield is manned by two no-names (SS J.J. Hardy and 3B Bill Hall). Don’t expect offense from the catcher position (Damian Miller). This was true.

Overall: This team is going to continue surprising people as they make their way into the playoffs as the wild card winner. Nope, they just surprised me as they fell back into mediocre hell.

3) Astros (83-79) Actual (82-80)

The Good News: The rookies that showed off in last year’s playoffs will continue blossoming. There is still plenty of pop in the line-up. The top of their rotation is good.

The Bad News: How are you going to just dump Jeff Bagwell like that? No Roger Clemens is going to hurt the team too. This almost feels like a rebuilding year (older players getting shuffled out the door for the new players to come in).

Overall: The Astros will win their fair share of games, but it will be hard for them to make the playoffs. They made a push for the playoffs, but ultimately fell short.

4) Cubs (79-83) Actual (66-96)

The Good News: Juan Pierre and Jacque Jones should bring some excitement to Wrigley. Derek Lee showed that he is in fact a star last year. The pitching staff has some potential. Derek Lee got injured.

The Bad News: Their line-up has more gaps than my teeth in high school. The Cubs are weak at the following positions: catcher, 2B, SS, LF. Also, the pitching staff is injury prone. In addition Kerry Wood is the most over hyped player in the game. This is true.

Overall: Another bad year for the Cubbies. At least there will be plenty of beer at Wrigley. That should satisfy most Cub fans. True and True.

5) Pirates (70-92) Actual (67-95)

The Good News: Sean Casey is a decent addition at first base. Also, the young pitching staff has some potential. Casey did a good job and helped his team to the playoffs. Too bad that was after he got shipped to Detroit.

The Bad News: Troubles at the catcher and centerfield positions. The rotation isn’t the deepest. And Jeromy Burnitz is starting in right, yikes. Yeah, this team was pretty rough to watch.

Overall: This is actually one of the better Pirates teams in recent memory, but that’s not saying much. At least they have a good foundation to build a team on in future years. Freddy Sanchez did a great job and is something the Pirates can build on.

6) Reds (60-102) Actual (80-82)

The Good News: The Reds have the best or second best outfield in the game.

The Bad News: The rest of the Reds are horrible.

Overall: Maybe the Reds will trade some of that outfield talent to even out their team. Either way, it’s going to be tough to be a Reds fan this year. Some how the Reds pulled things together to make me look like a dumbass. Congratulations.

NL West

1) Dodgers (88-74) Actual (88-74) [Dead on again, bitches!]

The Good News: The Dodgers made several moves that could end really well. Rafael Furcal is a solid shortstop; Bill Mueller has always been underrated at third; and Nomar Garciaparra has the potential to be a big factor. The veteran pick-ups proved valuable.

The Bad News: They have quite a few older players. The pitching staff is okay at best. Their catcher is a no-name. That no name catcher did turn out to be a stud.

Overall: Look for the Dodgers to make the playoffs, but I don’t expect them to go far into October. They made the playoffs and lost in the first round. Nice.

2) Diamondbacks (82-80) Actual (76-86)

The Good News: The D-backs made some tremendous leaps from last year’s team. They now have some great defense (2B Orlando Hudson, C Johnny Estrada, and CF Eric Byrnes). The pitching staff is really good, although many people may overlook it. They did play well for a good while.

The Bad News: The D-backs may have trouble on the left side on the infield (SS Craig Counsell and 3B Chad Tracy). Also, 1B may be an issue (right now the duty is to be shared by Tony Clark and rookie Conor Jackson). They started infusing rookies into the line-up to fill these voids into the future.

Overall: The D-backs will be surprisingly competitive this year. Look for them to make a run at the wild card. They were competitive for a while, but fell off.

3) Giants (81-81) Actual (76-85)

The Good News: Matt Morris gives them a solid one-two punch at the front of the rotation. Barry Bonds may actually be healthy again (but how will being off the juice effect him? I mean look at what it did to Sammy Sosa). Bonds had a rough season. Matt Morris? Next.

The Bad News: The Giants are fielding the “He’s still playing?” squad. Among the players who fit this category are: 2B Ray Durham, SS Omar Vizquel, RF Moises Alou, CFs Randy Winn and Steve Finley, and C Mike Matheny. So, basically, the team is full of older players who tend to be more prone to breaking down. And break down they did.

Overall: The Giants did improve upon last year’s squad but they aren’t getting any younger. Look for the Giants to end up around .500. They fell short of my prediction. It’s time to start rebuilding.

4) Padres (74-88) Actual (88-74)

The Good News: The Padres resigned Brian Giles. Jake Peavy is still an ace. Also, Trevor Hoffman is still in town.

The Bad News: Losing Ramon Hernandez is going to hurt (Piazza should help offensively, but not defensively). The pitching staff has taken a step backwards for this year, but has a promising future.

Overall: The Padres won the division last year with a record of 82-80. This year the team isn’t as good. Look for the Padres to maybe push at being a .500 ball club. The Padres outperformed my expectations and made it as the NL Wild Card.

5) Rockies (65-97) Actual (76-86)

The Good News: Clint Barmes is healthy again and Todd Helton is one of the best players in the sport. Clint Barmes was healthy, but he was terrible.

The Bad News: Everyone else on the team isn’t good. I don’t think I even have to mention the pitching staff. The pitching staff did quite well with their soggy balls.

Overall: Look for another last place finish in Colorado. They ended up tied for last in the division but out performed my expectations.

Playoffs

American League First Round

White Sox at A’s —————- A’s in 5 – If we adjust this to A’s versus Twins, the A’s won in 3 games.

Red Sox at Yankees ————— Yankees in 4 – If we adjust this to Yanks and Tigers, the Tigers won in 4

National League First Round

Brewers at Cardinals ————– Cardinals in 4 – If we adjust this to Cards and Padres, the Cards won in 4.

Braves at Dodgers ————— Dodgers in 5 - Adjust to Dodgers and Mets, Mets won in 3.

American League Championship

Yankees at A’s ————— A’s in 5 - Adjust to A’s and Tigers, Tigers won in 4.

National League Championship

Dodgers at Cardinals ————— Cardinals in 6 – Adjust to Cards and Mets, Cards won in 7.

World Series

Cardinals vs. A’s———— A’s in 5 – Adjust to Cards and Tigers, Cards won in 5.

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I’ll leave in my prediction for award winners just so you can laugh your ass off.

Awards

AL MVP

Alex Rodriguez

NL MVP

Albert Pujols

AL Cy Young

Rich Harden

NL Cy Young

Ben Sheets

AL Rookie of the Year

Brian Anderson

NL Rookie of the Year

Prince Fielder

Overall, most of my team picks were very close to the truth. I don’t see how SI or ESPN hasn’t come to my offering an analyst position yet. Come on now. I’m crazy good at these predictions.


NBC Thursday Line-up and Kevin Smith

October 28, 2006

Hey Everybody.

It looks like I am going to be unavailable on Thursday nights starting in November.

I’m not sure if you know this, but my life and the lives of everyone around me are changing now.

That’s right, NBC has changed up their line up!

The Thursday night line up will consist of the following:

8:00 – My Name Is Earl
8:30 – The Office
9:00 – Scrubs
9:30 – 30 Rock

That’s ridiculous. I mean they already dominated Thursdays with the current Earl and Office schedule. Scrubs is one of the funniest shows on television (it only took my 5 years to find out about that). 30 Rock started off a little week, but it has picked up lately and now it is a solid 30 minutes of comedy (I mean Tina Fey, dude).

What’s next? Heroes at 10 PM on Thursday?

By the way, isn’t NBC the best channel out there? While everyone else is out dumping money into crime scene shows, they have had the balls to say, “Let’s develop the best comedies out there.” It’s almost like they are targeting me specifically. I hate all the Law and Order/CSI bullshit and I love comedy. (I also like superheroes. So, Heroes works for me. I just hope they don’t continue down the “Lost” path. I’m not buying all that any question answered just creates more questions bullshit. Just have the Heroes fight some crime all ready.)

On to another subject; Kevin Smith has a new quasi-tv show called “Sucks Less.” The show is on MTV U (a channel only available on college campuses). The good news is that each episode is posted on MTVU.com. So, head on over there and get you some good Kevin Smith action.

While on the topic of K-Dog, An Evening with Kevin Smith 2 and Clerks 2 are both coming out at the end of November.

Have you bought Evening 1 yet? This is the third time I’ve brought it up in my blogs. Don’t you think you should get it already?

This past week I was watching Mallrats and decided to check out what kind of special features they had (I’ve got the 10th anniversary edition). I flipped the disc to the extended edition side. It turns out that there was a 50 minutes Q and A session just like in Evening with Kevin Smith. It was awesome. If you have the means, I highly suggest checking it out. It is so choice.

Off on another tangent, I’ve started reading a graphic novel called Y the Last Man (Thanks Chris). It is a great read. I laughed out loud a couple of times and the story is interesting. I even got Patti to read it and she dug it. Definitely worth checking it out.

Well, that’s all I have for you at this time. Check back later and I’m sure I’ll have something more for you.


Rockford

October 24, 2006

Hey all you Rockfordians. I will officially be back in town (along with my wife) for Thanksgiving. So get ready to rock, and by rock I mean play board games at my parent’s house. Hells yeah.


Kevin Smith, Disney Cruise, and Fantasy Basketball

October 17, 2006

I just wanted to take this opportunity to address some events in my life with my public.

The first event I want to comment about is An Afternoon with Kevin Smith. Let me just go ahead and say I loved this event. We got up early drove into Orlando and found the place. We went in and walked around and eventually found the line for seating assignments. We got there so early that we ended up being only 6 rows back from the stage. The Q and A started at approx. 2 PM. It actually outlasted us, as we left at 6:45 PM to get dinner (I heard it ended around 8 PM). There were a ton of highlights through out the Q and A. My favorite was when talking about Kevin’s opinion of Superman Returns, He says that it was a pretty good movie, but not much happened. “By the third act I was thinking, this movie could use a giant spider.” was Kevin’s killer line (if this makes no sense to you, you need to watch the Evening with Kevin Smith DVDs that I told you to do a month ago).

The second event I’ll discuss is the Disney Cruise that we went on. I didn’t really care for the cruise all that much. Pretty much everything was geared towards families or adults who love to buy overpriced mixed drinks. I don’t fall into either category. So most of the time I was wandering around awaiting something to do. I do have two highlights from the cruise though. The first, I went to a beer tasting. Here they brought us 5 beers (6 oz. each). After we had finished those off, they did a little trivia session where if you got a question correct, you got another 6 oz. beer. I ended up getting 1 question right (See if you can get it right…There have been only two beer companies named on the Simpsons. One of them is Duff, what is the name of the other?) So, after the 36 oz., I was pretty much done for, then the bar master came over and gave each of us a 12 oz. can of San Miguel (From his native country of the Phillipines). So, that was a pretty good time. The other highlight was the first full day on the ship, after dinner I got the hiccups and had them for about 2 hours. Everyone else had gone to see Hercules the live action musical. After I got finally got rid of the hiccups, I went to the theater where Hercules was playing. It was still going on so I decided to step out on the deck and just hang out. I walked up to the ledge and gazed out into the evening sea. I would say it was about 75 degrees with a nice warm breeze. It was absolutely perfect. I had the biggest goofiest grin on my face over like the sea that night.

The third big event was the Gerry League NBA Fantasy Draft. At first I wasn’t sure if I was going to have fun doing this but I all-encompassingly got into it. I feel I have put together a strong team with a good mixture of strong performers and high-risk high return fantasy studs. My starting five look like this:

Baron Davis – PG
Michael Redd – SG
Adam Morrison – SF
Dirk Nowitski – PF
Jermaine O’Neil – C

I have Troy Murphy, Darko Milicic, Dajuan Wagnor, Randy Foye, and a few others on the bench. I think I have a good chance at making a run at the championship. Especially considering that a couple of teams made some very questionable draft picks (i.e. someone drafted Damon Stoudamire. No, I’m not kidding. Yes, apparently he still plays in the NBA).

I guess that pretty much gets you up to speed on my life. Give me some feedback.