UngsungBlog: A (Fantasy) Sports Blog

A couple quick-hitters:

- Ok, so I’m finally sick and tired of the tiny font I used to use for my blogs. I think I will stick to the normal-sized font from now on.

- Man, I just put $400+ on my credit card, on two items with questionable rebates. One item was from TigerDirect (the horror!!!).

One more thing before I get on to the topic at hand:

- Tennessee Titans’ CB Pacman Jones will be suspended for all of the 2007 NFL season; Cincinnati Bengals WR Chris Henry will miss eight games. I recall someone making such a prediction less than a week ago:

As far as the two players mentioned above are concerned, if I were the Commish, I would make examples out of these two guys and suspend Pacman for the 2007 season, and Henry eight games.

Good for the Commish to stand up to these guys and levy these punishments! I’m also happy to hear that Titans owner Bud Adams and Cincy coach Marvin Lewis respect Goddell’s decision. Not unexpectedly, Pacman’s mom (Ms. Pacman?) wasn’t too happy with the verdict, calling it “not fair for him. It’s just not fair.” What did you expect? Did you expect the league to suspend him for four games, or even eight? He had been involved in TEN separate incidents involving the police in two years! I don’t think I served ten instances of detention in my entire life! Ms. Pacman and her son should be happy that the Titans haven’t yet waived the cornerback yet; why they haven’t is anyone’s guess. In all seriousness, though, I do hope that Pacman and Henry can complete their suspensions without getting involved in another situation that involves the police.

Now for the topic of the NBA Playoff races!

Yes, this is the time of year when the NBA finally starts interesting me. With about a week to go in the season, teams in the playoff picture are jockeying for position, and teams out of the race are jockeying for more ping-pong balls. The NBA in April, it’s FAN-tastic!

- Here are the latest NBA standings. I’ll start with some commentary about the Eastern Conference.

1) I am praying that Chicago holds off Cleveland for the #2 seed, not because I’m a Bulls fan, but because I want to see a Miami-Cleveland first round match up! The two most untouchable players in the league, going at it, one-on-one! How thrilling will that be? By “untouchable,” I don’t mean there’s no way in hell anyone could pry either of these players away from their respective teams (which is true), but I mean it literally; after last year’s whistle-fest…er…playoffs, I’m convinced that defenders can’t look at Dwyane Wade or Lebron James without being called for a foul. These two guys might average sixty foul shots a game between them!

As fun as watching Wade and Lebron having a FT shooting contest might be, there is the potential for something even more exciting to happen in this series. What if these two players defended each other? Will the refs have the stones to call violations–fouls, walks, carryovers, etc.–on either player? If so, neither guy would last more than twenty minutes of playing time! David Stern must be pissing his pants at the potential of this first-round match up! I wonder if he has the refs for the Bulls’ and Cavs’ remaining games on full “fix” alert. Of course, that would be assuming the NBA fixes games…

2) Poor Detroit. Assuming every first-round match up goes in favor of the higher-seeded team, Detroit will face Miami in the second round.

3) I don’t bandwagon, but if I did, I would reserve a ticket on the Toronto Raptors’ bandwagon. No, I don’t expect them to win the East, but a 2-3 match up between Toronto and Chicago should be quite intriguing.

Now for some thoughts on the West:

1) I can’t help but be intrigued by the 4-5 match up between Utah and Houston. No, this isn’t Stockton and Malone’s Jazz, and we’re not talking about Olajuwon’s Rockets, but it would not surprise me if either team gives Dallas a run for its money in a potential second-round match up.

2) The Lakers v Suns, part deux, eh? I just hope a sportsbook has a prop bet on whether or not Raja Bell will go WWE on Kobe again this year. I’ll put my money on Yes, and parlay that with the over/under on Kobe’s average score in the series (I’ll take the over, thank you very much).

3) Are my eyes deceiving me, or do I see the Golden State Warriors as the #8 seed? Wow. Props to them if they hold off the Clippers and make it to the playoffs, where they will serve as cannon fodder for the Dallas Mavericks.

There is an article, written by freelance writer (and MSNBC.com contributor) Michael Ventre, talking about how the Dodgers’ pitching this year doesn’t remind him, in the least, of the years of Koufax and Drysdale. As much as I enjoy Ventre’s articles, this latest article couldn’t be more ridiculous. I’ll address this article at a later date.

Until next time!

by Peter
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Some big names in baseball have already been sidelined! If this trend keeps up, every team’s roster will resemble Triple A rosters!

- So my Dodgers lost to the Rockies today, but that wasn’t the big story of the day. Starting pitcher, and big free agent catch Jason Schmidt left the game with tightness in his right hamstring. Matt Kemp also left the game early, when he crashed his shoulder into the outfield wall, trying to chase down a fly ball. The Schmidt injury doesn’t worry me too much, as long as it doesn’t linger as the season goes on. Thank goodness the injury is tightness, and not a hamstring pull. Besides, our rotation is deep enough so that Schmidt won’t be missed that much, should he miss a start or two. The Kemp injury looked far worse than it really was, and he’ll only miss a couple of days as well. At least it wasn’t Kent or Nomar that got hurt…

A quick comment about The Masters: I have heard people saying that Tiger Woods “choked” at the end of the tournament. He did not choke! He got beat by a hot golfer who made his shots down the stretch. Tiger, who usually makes his down the stretch, unfortunately did not.

- Also on the injury list: Chris Carpenter of the Cards and Mike Hampton of the Braves. Carpenter was placed on the 15-day disabled list with elbow troubles. It’s not like the Cardinals can afford to lose a starting pitcher, much less their ace. With two relievers in their rotation–Wainwright and Looper, though Wainwright’s transition to the rotation ought to be easier than Looper’s–and a call-up from Triple-A, the Cardinals could be in serious trouble in the NL Central. As for Hampton, he has a torn tendon in his pitching elbow, and he’ll miss the entire season for the second straight year. I’m still not sure what the Rockies were thinking when they paid this guy $121 million for eight years. He had one solid season (1999, where he went 22-4), and hasn’t really come close to matching that performance. Then again, he did spend the first two years of that deal pitching in Coors Field, a hitter’s park, to say the least.

- Alleged racist and radio show host Don Imus admitted that he went “way too far” when he referred to members of Rutgers’ women’s basketball team as “nappy-headed hos.” Appearing on Rev. Al Sharpton’s radio show today, he did what just about anybody in his situation has done in the past (aka Repairing your Image 101): he made a long-witted apology, pointed out how good of a person he really is, and wanted to meet those he offended in person and apologize to them. I have no comment about his apology, but I am interested in knowing what Imus was referring to when this happened:

During one exchange, Imus said he can’t win with “you people.” Sharpton was clearly irritated by that remark.

So let me get this straight. You made a racist comment, went on Al Sharpton’s radio program to apologize and insist that you’re not racist, and then you make another discriminatory comment?!? Now, I’m not implying that “you people” refers to blacks; in fact, it could mean “radio show hosts,” “critics,” or something more specific like “NAACP members.” Whatever the term refers to, he can’t say that without appearing discriminatory again! I love how Imus whines that he won’t escape from this incident unscathed and without humiliation, as if I’m supposed to feel sorry for the guy after he made these remarks.

This Lakers-Denver game is pretty entertaining; the loser is pretty much guaranteed to face the Suns in the first round of the playoffs. Perhaps I’ll have another blog entry later tonight or early tomorrow morning with some NBA thoughts. Until then, happy blogging!

by Peter
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Ah, I love how nice my room smells after cleaning it! It smells of…nothing, and that’s the way it should be. I don’t need my room to smell of “paradise cove” or “summer breeze” or “tropical island”

I just hope the sock monster that lives in the dryer doesn’t eat too many of my socks today (yeah, I’m cleaning my room AND doing laundry, and yet I found a way to squeeze in a blog entry as well! Talk about multi-tasking!)

- So the damn computer upgrade bug, which hasn’t bothered me since college, has finally bit me. I can’t help but look at the cheap dual-core combos at Fry’s. Of course, I’ll then need to buy a decent PCI-e card, some DDR2, and probably a more powerful PSU. Hopefully I can stay under my ~$300 budget. Maybe I should buy a real cheap Athlon 64 chip, and find a board that uses DDR.

- With their loss to the Suns today, the Lakers dropped to seventh in the NBA’s Western Conference playoff picture. With games left at sixth place Denver, versus the eighth place Clippers, and at Phoenix, the Lakers could conceivably drop into the eighth seed. What do the Lakers win with the eighth seed? A first-round matchup against the Dallas Mavericks. Of course, seventh isn’t exactly a walk in the park, either, as a seventh place finish sends the Lakers to Phoenix. The Lakers-Denver tilt tomorrow is practically must-win for the Lakers if they want to have a shot at the sixth seed. By the way, the sixth seed gets the right to face the San Antonio Spurs…

Speaking of the Lakers, somebody should remind Smush Parker that he is Smush Parker, and that his coach has nine more rings than he does. He recently ranted about being benched for the entire fourth quarter of a game against the Clippers. Coach Jackson’s response? He wasn’t pressuring the ball, which is a very good way to find yourself on the bench. I have a feeling we will not be seeing Smush Parker in a Laker uniform next year; he is a free agent at the end of the season, and the Lakers didn’t draft Jordan Farmar for nothing, despite the fact that Farmar isn’t the typical big guard that Jackson likes.

- Luis Gonzalez hit two homers today, and Randy Wolf pitched the Dodgers to another victory over the Giants! If Gonzo keeps averaging two homers every six games, I will be one very happy Dodger fan :P. By the way, Giant fan, how does that Barry Zito signing look now? He’s now 0-2 and he hasn’t looked sharp in either outing he’s pitched in so far this season. I realize we’re only two games into the season, but the Zito signing is quickly looking to be one of the worst free agent signings ever. Of course, who didn’t see this coming? Zito’s numbers have been on a downward trend for the past couple of years, and he’ll be 35 when his monstrous contract comes to an end. I understand that the Giants really needed to make a big free agent splash this past off-season, to give Barry one last run at a championship, but $120+ million for Barry Zito? The Jason Schmidt signing looks even better, by comparison, than it did when the Zito signing was first announced.

Finally, I should make mention that I am taking part in an Iron Man Blogging Competition. The rules are pretty simple: make a blog entry every day, of at least 300 words, or you’re eliminated. The last one standing wins a nice hosting package, along with a domain name registration. Too bad my geek-odometer doesn’t have a word count setting!

I had some more thoughts to get to, including a quick thoughts on The Masters, but my laundry beckons. Until next time!

by Peter
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Really, I swear, there will not be anything special about this entry

- A-Fraud hit a game winning grand slam to vault the New York Yankees over the Baltimore Orioles, covering a horrible performance by Yankees’ pitcher Kei Igawa. Ok, so A-Fraud got his first clutch hit as a Yankee since…well…ever! Let’s see if he can repeat the performance in October, when games matter. Oh yeah, it’s not like he was facing Joe Nathan, K-Rod, or even Jonathan Papelbon. Am I supposed to be that impressed by a ninth-inning, walk-off slam against the Baltimore Orioles???

Ok, in A-Rod’s defense, he gets way too much flak for his inability to produce in clutch situations, and good for him to get a clutch hit early in the season. Imagine if he had struck out in that AB; the NY papers would have let him have it for the next week or so. With this hit, A-Rod might have bought himself a reprieve for about a day or so.

- A week in to the season, and my Dodgers are 3-2, after beating the hated ones again today. That was a great pitching performance by Derek Lowe today–granted, Barry wasn’t playing–and the bullpen looked pretty sharp today. A few observations, of mine, five games into the 2007 season.

- If we’re going to get a bunch of HRs this year, it’s going to come from a prospect or a trade
- Our starting pitching looks real strong (any time Brad Penny is your #4 starter, you can say that); hopefully we find a suitable #5
- Areas of concern: the bullpen, especially as the season wears on; injuries, especially to Nomar and Kent; outfield defense.

Now it’s time for me to elaborate a bit on the rest of my MLB picks for this season.

- The AL Central pick was a tough one. The ChiSox are always a threat, with that rotation and their bats. The Twins are a threat on the two J.M.s (Justin Morneau and Joe Mauer), and that lefty that pitches every fifth day, whatever his name is. The Indians have been underachieving for the past couple of years, and Travis Hafner’s nickmane–Pronc–is awesome. The Royals are…um…never mind. I picked the Tigers simply because I love their starting pitching–Bonderman, Verlander, Robertson, and Rogers, when he gets back–and the offense got a nice upgrade with Gary Sheffield, assuming he keeps his head on straight for the entire season.

- My NL East pick, the New York Mets, was not a tough one. Yeah, the question marks in the starting rotation are worrisome. Yes, the Braves are set to rebound this year. Then again, the Mets still have the two Carloses–Beltran and Delgado–as well as Jose Reyes and David Wright. They also have Billy Wagner at the back of the bullpen, which can’t hurt. Even with the Braves’ upgrades in the bullpen, I don’t see Atlanta topping the Mets unless Tim Hudson has a Cy Young-type season.

(tangent #1: I glanced over at the Mets’ roster, and it says the Julio Franco has 25 years of big league experience. I thought that was a typo for sure, until I remembered that Franco is nearing 50 years old)

(tangent #2: I discovered that my new Logitech keyboard has a character counter on it; consider it an odometer for geeks As of this <-- keystroke, the counter reads 15227. This might be fun; I might have to make daily updates about my geek-odometer!)

- The NL Central pick was simply a “I will not pick the Cubs” pick. So far, the Cards are 1-4, and they’re making me look real bad. I should have picked Cincinnati, with that starting rotation of theirs. Let’s move on.

- The NL West pick looks like a “homer” pick (a homer because I’m a Dodgers fan). The Rockies and Giants are probably not going to win the division, and I don’t think the D-Backs quite have enough to contend for the division crown, either, though the prospects of facing Brandon Webb and The Big Unit is scary. I was thinking about picking the Padres to win the division, but I think the Dodgers’ slight advantages with the starting rotation offense (IMO) should push them to the NL West title. Peavy, Maddux, Young, Wells, and Hensley is a very impressive rotation, but I think the Dodgers’ rotation–Lowe, Schmidt, Penny, Wolf, and Kuo/Billingsley/?–is a tad better, top to bottom. If the two teams played each other in a playoff series, on the other hand, I might have to lean towards the Padres’ pitchers, especially since Peavy is a true ace, and I’m not convinced the Dodgers have one (no, I’m not convinced Jason Schmidt is a true ace; he needs to prove he can stay healthy for the season for me to change my mind).

I never did give my wild-card picks, so here they are: Boston should win the AL Wild Card, and San Diego should win the NL Wild Card. Boston’s pick is an easy one, especially if Dice-K continues to pitch well. I can’t pick an AL Central team to win, because they will all beat up on each other. I also can’t pick Oakland, because I just don’t think they have enough starting pitching. As for the NL, I think San Diego will be able to hold off the NL Central, and Atlanta, also due to their starting pitching.

We’ll see how bad these predictions look in a few months

by Peter
2 Comments »

I could give my loyal readers–all none of you–my thoughts on the NL East and West, which I have been promising for a couple of days now. I could give you my thoughts on yet another racist-in-denial in the sports world, and yes, as much as I knock it, women’s college basketball is a sport (but don’t get me started on the “pro” game :P). I could talk about David Carr moving on to Carolina, a very good decision, IMO. I could talk about Billy Gillispie taking the Kentucky job, a move that I like for a couple of reasons, BTW. Heck, I could even make a comment or two about The Masters, and how Tiger Woods is struggling; then again, just about everyone is at Augusta.

I could talk about any, or all, of the above topics. However, I have a brand new toy, courtesy of Logitech’s RMA service + DHL, who delivered the package two business days earlier than the tracking number indicated. I found a Logitech Cordless Desktop MX3200 Laser keyboard + mouse combination sitting on my doorstep. Here’s my brief, mini-review, of the combo:

The first thing that I noticed was the LCD on the keyboard. Yes, there’s an LCD on the keyboard, with a clock, alarm, and stopwatch function, because it’s too difficult to look at the bottom-right corner of my screen to see the Windows clock there. As with most keyboards nowadays, there is a row of “media” keys–reverse, play/pause, forward, record, mute, volume down/up, etc., though I noticed there is no stop button. Previous Logitech keyboards I’ve owned had a scroll wheel for the volume control; this keyboard has volume down/up buttons instead. I kinda liked the scroll wheel, despite the fact that all turn-y button things lie.

For the most part, the keyboard arrangement is identical to that of my old Logitech keyboard, a Logitech MX3000 (I couldn’t find a link to just the keyboard, so this will have to do.)  The only noticeable difference, of the main keys, at least, is the loss of the context-click (the “right-click”) key, which is now the “Fn” (programmable function) key.

(EDITED 5/7/07: The context-click key can be accessed by hitting the Fn key and the Print Screen key at the same time. Also, scroll lock can be accessed by hitting Fn + Pause/Break. I bring up the latter because I get a lot of hits on my site of people, apparently, looking for the location of the scroll lock key.)

I would have preferred the Fn key at the top of the keyboard, rather than with the usual keys, though.  On the left side of the MX3200, Logitech got rid of the back button, which also wasn’t really useful to me, since I find myself clicking the back button on my mouse most of the time. Logitech also got rid of the manual scroll wheel on the left side of the keyboard, replacing it with a touch-pad-like scroller (aka “Dynamic Search & Zoom”)! Even though I do most of my scrolling with the mouse wheel, I must admit that this is a cool feature.

The USB receiver is the size of a jump drive, which got me thinking, “This thing is too small! I’ll probably need to buy a USB extension cable (A-male to A-female) to give the keyboard and mouse a better line of sight to the receiver!” Sifting through the rest of the box, though, I found just what I needed–basically, a USB extension cable, with a cool little stand at one end that sits neatly on your desk (I’d take a picture to better describe what I’m talking about, but I can’t find my digital camera)! The size of the receiver made sense to me when I took a closer look at the box, and noticed that the MX3200 was labeled as “notebook ready.” After all, a notebook ready keyboard/mouse needs to have a very small receiver, no? I also noticed that the keyboard had “Anti-Microbial Technology.” No comment, your honor…

The mouse, an MX600 Laser mouse, is nothing special. It has the typical five-button layout (left, right, mouse wheel, back, and forward, with the mouse wheel able to tilt left and right). It also has three extra buttons: zoom (+ and -), and search, two buttons that I probably will never use. It is a very lightweight mouse, though, despite its size; I remember the mouse that came with the MX Duo was significantly heavier than the MX600.

One thing I really like about the keyboard is the soft, rubberized feel that the keys and the mouse have, as opposed to the plastic feel that my older MX3000 keyboard had. Even the wrist rest has that same softness to it. For me, that isn’t really necessary, as I use a gel wrist rest. One major drawback, though, of this combo is the six AA battery requirement (four for the keyboard, two for the mouse). It makes sense that this keyboard will need more than the typical two batteries, of course, because of that darn LCD! A more minor drawback to this keyboard/mouse combo is the absence of a caps/num/scroll lock indicator. Usually these Logitech combos have indicator LEDs on the receiver itself, but this is not the case with the MX3200. This is not a problem if you choose to install the SetPoint software, as the software would flash a message on-screen when you strike any of these -lock keys (I don’t have the software installed; the most recent version I used, back when it was called iTouch, seemed to be bloated). It’s a shame that Logitech didn’t include these indicators on the LCD screen on the keyboard.

All in all, I’m quite happy with the combo, and can easily recommend it to anyone who needs a new keyboard/mouse set, provided you can find a hot deal, of course

- Super quick MLB predictions, with analyses to come at a later date:

AL Central: Detroit Tigers
NL East: New York Mets
NL Central: St. Louis Cardinals
NL West: Los Angeles Dodgers

Until next time, happy blogging!

Tags: cordless desktop, dynamic search & zoom, logitech, mx duo, mx3000, mx3200 laser, mx600 laser mouse, setpoint software by Peter
3 Comments »

Thank goodness for the return of The Office! When will NBC release the Dwight Schrute official can of pepper spray?

- Billy Donovan has a large mountain to climb next year, without any of the four juniors that starred on the Florida Gators’ last two championship teams. Props to Coach Donovan for making up his mind immediately about his future; maybe a certain MLB pitcher should take notes. By doing so, he does a favor for both Florida–they don’t have to worry about looking for a coach, and their recruiting power stays intact with the two-time defending national champion coach–and Kentucky–they can now focus other candidates, rather than trying to pry Donovan away from Florida.

If Donovan gets next year’s Gators team anywhere close to the Final Four, we might be talking about one of the greatest NCAA Basketball coaches ever. How often do you see a college basketball team lose four superstars, and rebound the following season (never mind the fact that they are also losing sharpshooter Lee Humphrey and energy guy in Chris Richard)? I wouldn’t be surprised, though, if Florida returns to championship contention within three years.

(Yes, I realize I said there was a 1% chance that Donovan was going to return to Florida if his stars were to declare for the NBA draft. Whoops!)

- First Caron Butler, now Gilbert Arenas. There goes Washington’s championship aspirations, of which they didn’t have much to begin with. With only eight games left in the NBA season, Washington will probably hold on to the sixth seed, but Toronto (the current third seed) should be licking their chops at the prospects of playing a banged-up Wizards team. Speaking of Toronto, props to GM Bryan Colangelo for turning this team around. It wasn’t long ago when Toronto was absolutely horrible–after they were forced to trade Wince Carter (typo intentional) for twenty-five cents on the dollar. It’s a shame that two of their own key players–rookie Andrea Bargnani and Jorge Garbajosa–are also hurt, and may miss the playoffs.

- So Dice-K pitched very well against the Kansas City Royals. Let’s not make a big deal about his performance. The guy had a couple things going for him, after all. First of all, he was facing the Royals, after all. Second, let’s see what happens later in the season, when teams become more familiar with his repertoire of pitches. Third, may I remind you that he was facing the Royals? Let’s see how he works under the spotlight of Yankee Stadium. That being said, he threw some sick pitches, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he reached 15-17 wins this year.

I was going to make more baseball predictions, but I’m tired, so I’ll save those for tomorrow’s post. Until then, happy blogging!

by Peter
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Yes, I know. I made a serious error in yesterday’s blog entry, and I blame it on the brain freeze I got last night while drinking a tropical fruit milkshake (which, I must admit, was quite tasty). I promise I will be more careful next time!

By the way, the error I made does not change my stance on Billy Donovan’s future. I know I had said in an earlier post that it was 75%-25% will bolt for the Kentucky job. I’d like to revise this slightly: if Florida’s stars all declare for the NBA draft, I’ll say there’s a 75% chance that he’ll go to the NBA, a 24% chance that he’ll go to Kentucky, and a 1% chance that he’ll stay at Florida. I really see no reason for Donovan to stay at Florida, when his “dream job” is available, as well as the millions of dollars available with an NBA job. Besides, Donovan is young enough to try his hand at the NBA, and assuming he doesn’t succeed, he can return to the NCAAs and still have time to build another “dynasty.”

Now, this may be blasphemous to say, as I am a UCLA fan, but I’d really like to see Florida’s “Fab Four” return and make a run at a three-peat, for two reasons. One, I want the Bruins to have another shot at downing the defending champs, and two, I would love to see Florida do something that only one other team has ever done–win three straight NCAA championships.

- NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is mulling lifetime bans for players that commit “serious criminal incidents.” He adds that he has no intention on levying lifetime bans on Cincinnati WR Chris Henry or Titans’ CB Pacman Jones. I can’t say I blame the Commish. The NFL is seriously going down a slippery slope (*cough* Cincinnati *cough*), and how much more is the league going to tolerate before someone throws down the hammer? As far as the two players mentioned above are concerned, if I were the Commish, I would make examples out of these two guys and suspend Pacman for the 2007 season, and Henry eight games . Why the harsh punishments? At last count, these two guys were involved in a total of fourteen incidents–to be fair, Pacman was involved in ten of them.

Let’s talk some baseball! I’ll start with my AL East (aka the “We Get Way Too Much Attention” division) predictions:

- As it has been for the last several years, the AL East is a two-team race, between the Red Sox rotation and the Yankees’ bats (sorry Toronto). Boston’s bullpen got strenghtened by Jonathon Papelbon’s return to the closer role, and Dice-K looks like the real deal. The Yankees lost Gary Sheffield, but they still have Jeter, Giambi, Abreu, A-Fraud, Matsui, etc. That being said, how can I pick against the Yankees? Schilling is aging, Beckett isn’t the pitcher he was in Florida, the bullpen is still suspect, at best, and Andy Pettitte may prove to be one of the more underrated signings of the year. There’s also that Roger Clemens fellow floating around…(and if you expect me to believe that he’s going anywhere besides the Yankees, you must be smoking something awfully potent! Could I have some?)

- I’ll leave the all-out slugfest that is the AL Central for a later post, and move on to the AL West. Again, I see this as a two-team race (no, Texas, Eric Gagne will not bring you an AL West championship, and Seattle, be prepared to lose Ichiro after this season). The Angels desperately needed a bat to protect Vlad, and all they got was Garoid Matthews, Jr., who’s a leadoff hitter, by the way. Oakland lost quite a bit this offseason–Zito, Big Hurt–and yet I’ve seen some experts still pick Oakland over the Los Angeles Angels not of Los Angeles. If Oakland has to rely on Rich Harden leading them to the AL West crown (and I think they may), I’m going to have to pick LAAnoLA to win the AL West.

Next time, I’ll talk about the NL East and NL West, and save the two Central divisions for a future post.

by Peter
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This blog entry was originally going to be titled “Thank you, Time Warner,” for their exceptional tech support. Of course, by exceptional, I mean horrible.

- Florida 84, OSU 75, in a game that wasn’t nearly as close as the final score would suggest. No, OSU wasn’t beat down the same way UCLA was last year, but they were beat down nonetheless. This was about the easier cover (Florida -4.5 at tip-off) all year, in my opinion. Of course, gambling is illegal, so it’s not like I made a bet on the game.

Some thoughts about the championship:

- Corey Brewer is now firmly a top-10 pick. Did you see that block on Greg Oden? This guy will easily be the next Gerald Wallace/Josh Smith, and if he expands his shooting range, he’ll probably be better than either of them. How many players in the draft offer the same package as Brewer–ball handler, sharpshooter, on-the-ball defender, shot blocker, etc.? I’d sure as hell draft a guy like Brewer over, say, Brandan Wright. Heck, I’d take Brewer over Joakim Noah right now. I’d still take Horford over Brewer, though; Horford’s game will be lethal if he could consistently hit a jumper. Going back to Brewer, though; I fear that the injury bug could very well plague his career.

- Greg Oden did not disappoint, even though he was obviously winded as the game wound down. Blame OSU coach Thad Matta for that. He had to give Oden a breather somewhere in the second half, even with his team down double digits. Still, Oden really impressed me yesterday. He showed excellent footwork, and a real soft touch. His jump hook still needs a bit of work, though.

BTW, it was pathetic watching Florida’s bigs leaping into Oden to try to get a foul on him. If I didn’t know better, I would have mistaken yesterday’s game for a hockey game. Props to Oden for being able to stay on the court for as long as he did. He is now, undoubtedly, the #1 pick of next year’s draft. That being said, I really think he should come back for another season. His post play is still not polished, and he’ll have a great look at a national championship next year, as long as Mike Conley Jr. returns.

- Where will Billy Donovan end up? I think he’s headed for an NBA job, unless his “Fab Four” (Noah, Horford, Brewer, Green) decides to all return for a run at another title. If even one of them, most likely Noah or Horford, declares himself eligible for the NBA draft, I see the rest, except maybe Green, leaving as well. If that happens, I can easily see an NBA team or two willing to pay Donovan somewhere in the neighborhood of $5 million/year. Given the track record of college coaches moving on to the NBA, we know that $5 million/year is far too much, but we also know that teams in the cellar like to make splashes when it comes to hiring new coaches. I thought Miami was going to be a front-runner for Donovan’s services, until reports surfaced that Shaq had no interest in playing for a college coach (I heard that on The Jim Rome Show yesterday).

(The post above was edited; what an egregious error I made! For some reason, I thought Donovan was a front-runner for the Michigan job, when we all know his name has circulated around the Kentucky job! Oops!)

- Mike Conley Jr. is an absolute stud. Taurean Green is nice, too; he’ll probably be a good, solid, backup point guard in his NBA career.

- For all the love JJ Redick got in his career, Lee Humphrey might be an even better shooter than Redick. Humphrey comes with the same baggage as Redick: not terribly athletic, can’t really create his own shot, not a great defender. However, his lightning-quick release ought to be able to help some NBA team.

Oh yeah, w00t! for baseball season! Even though the season has already started, I will make my league-wide predictions for 2007 in tomorrow’s blog entry. Until then, happy blogging!

by Peter
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If I haven’t said it before, this is my favorite time of the sports year. With the NBA preparing for the playoffs, the NCAA Men’s tourney about to crown a champion, MLB starting up, and the Masters–yes, I’m a golf fan–coming up soon…oh, what a wonderful world!

- Thank you, Sports Guy, for making a statement that I wasn’t quite willing to make yet–that Corey Brewer is a top-10 pick. Of course, that’s assuming he can expand his shooting range to the NBA 3 point line. Also, Bill, why would you want Joakim Noah, on a team that already has Al Jefferson? I’m convinced that Joakim Noah is a superstar only because he has Horford and Brewer in the front court alongside him. If I’m an NBA GM, picking third, and assuming the first two GMs aren’t absolute idiots, I’m taking Al Horford. Then again, Boston would have no need for Horford, either…

BTW, I keep hearing the argument that it’s too easy to foul out in a college basketball game. Some people–I believe Dukie V is one–have suggested that players should not be allowed to foul out; if a player should commit a personal foul after his fifth, it should be penalized as a flagrant foul (two shots + possession). I kinda like Simmons’ idea of disqualifying the player after his sixth foul, and awarding two shots + possession on that violation, but I’m not sold on the bonus foul shots. If anything should be changed–and I argue that the system works fine the way it is–I think players should be given six fouls instead of five. Sure, UCLA’s chances got nuked as soon as Arron Afflalo and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute picked up three and two fouls, respectively (though it could be argued that UCLA had no chance versus Florida even with them playing all forty minutes), but each one was guilty of a cheap foul that either could have avoided.

- According to Sportsbook.com, Florida is a five-point favorite against OSU. I’ll take the favorite, thank you very much. It’s pretty clear that they have hit the “switch.” Then again, Greg Oden has a ton to play for (again, I agree with you, Mr. Simmons). A superb performance in the championship game, even if it ends with a loss, should solidify his #1 pick status. Yes, there is a possibility that Kevin Durant will be taken ahead of Oden, but a strong performance by OSU’s center should knock Durant out of the conversation.

- A 33-year-old woman was arrested for allegedly offering an undercover investigator the chance to take pornographic pictures of her 7-year-old daughter, AND have sex with the girl. I wonder what it takes for a parent to convince him/herself that forcing your child to have sex with another person is a good way to earn extra money. The woman must be truly sick in the mind to put the girl in this position, much less even consider such a proposal!

- This is a fantastic article about global warming and whether the phenomenon actually exists, or if it is actually “global.” In last week’s version of SWIFT–James Randi’s online newsletter–he declared that Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” caused him to abandon “any doubts that [he] may have had about the reality of our species’ contribution to global warming. Gore – a statesman if ever there was one – makes his point repeatedly and powerfully. If you haven’t seen it, by all means do so…” Randi was immediately blasted for his stance, and vowed to re-examine his position on Gore’s film. He immediately back-tracked from his previous position, and offered up some excellent evidence to the contrary.

There are two key points in the whole global warming debate that need to be closely examined:

1) How does one measure a “global” warming? Surely, it would be difficult to measure all climate changes in every corner of the world, especially when you consider that 70% of the Earth is covered in water. Is the phenomenon of global warming really nothing more than “local warming,” measured in several areas from which data could actually be collected?

2) Statistical models of past-, present-, and perceived future changes in climate, as Randi points out, should not be mistaken for accurate predictors of global warming. Statistical models are exactly what they are; they are models that show a possible trend in changes to something. Here is an (admitted) oversimplification of this point: consider the flipping of a coin. If the first ten flips alternate heads and tails, and the next ten flips come out all heads, should we conclude that the next flip will be heads, because of the trend shown by the previous ten flips of the coin? Similarly, even though temperatures, according to data–for now, let’s not question the methods in which the data were collected–had been oscillating up and down for years, and only recently showed an up-sloping (is that a word?) trend, can we conclude that the recent trend is an indicator of things to come in the next few years?

Now, I’m not totally dismissing the notion that global warming exists. Is it an issue to worry about in the future? Probably. Is it an issue that should demand research dollars to further understand? Yes. Is it as big of a problem as some people would make it appear to be? I’m not sold on that; not at the moment, at least.

Whew! I didn’t expect this entry to be so long! Hopefully the “BCS Rematch” game will be as good as advertised!

by Peter
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I could have gone with “We Blue It” or some other horrible pun with the word “blue”, but my allergies have kicked up, so I thought the title above was appropriate.

- When did I know UCLA had no chance against Florida in yesterday’s game? I knew when it was 6-2, UCLA, with seven minutes gone by. UCLA’s defense had absolutely shut down Florida’s offense, aided by a ton of bricks by Florida’s three-point shooters. The Bruins’ managing of only six points during that stretch, though, was disastrous, because you knew Florida was going to start nailing the treys. Once Corey Brewer got hot, the game was over.

(BTW, Corey Brewer might be the best player on Florida, and that’s not taking anything away from Noah and Horford. He reminds me a bit of Tracy McGrady, minus the offensive explosiveness, but plus the lockdown defense.)

Once Brewer started hitting his triples, and Humphrey began chipping in, you knew that Noah and Horford were going to get single-teamed on the block, and the Bruins’ foul trouble really caught up to them. Once Florida went on their run to open the second-half, I should have just shut off the TV. I’m not sure why I decided to continue watching; it was pretty painful to watch ;p.

I might have to mute the TV when I watch the championship game, though…the combination of Billy Packer talking and Joakim Noah screaming like Maria Sharapova might be too much to handle. Yes, Noah, we understand you play with a lot of passion and energy, and I admire it. But stop screaming like you hit a forehand winner down the baseline to save a match point!

- Florida is the new Fab Five, says ESPN columnist Pat Forde. He sums up Florida’s team with this one quote:

Better. Cleaner (one certainly would hope). Tighter. Tougher.

I hate to admit it, but Forde’s right. By virtue of winning one championship, it’s easy to conclude that this team is better than Michigan’s Fab Five. We haven’t yet heard of any booster scandals regarding this team, yet (the operative word is “yet”). All five guys decided to return for a chance to repeat (though it’s not like Humphrey or Green would have been lottery picks, after last year, and I doubt they will be even this upcoming year). As far as tougher, I’m not too sure about that, but I won’t totally disagree with this point. Could you imagine if Noah, Horford, Green, and Brewer all return for next season? We could be talking about the strongest NCAA Basketball dynasty since the UCLA Wooden days. Of course, this all depends on whether or not Billy Donovan takes the Kentucky job.

- 80,000 people went to see Donald Trump shave Vince McMahon’s head, or so the article would like you to believe. It must be a slow news day at ESPN. Shouldn’t they be focusing more on the NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship? Did you know there was an NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship going on?

- And finally, a Chinese teenager killed himself after a blind date, when the date turned (up) ugly. I guess she must have been one FUGLY woman! It seems he would really rather be dead than seen with her in public. All kidding aside, I wonder if the kid suffered from any psychological disorders, because I can’t fathom an ugly blind date being enough to cause someone to kill himself.

That’s all for now. Until next time, happy blogging!

by Peter
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