I hope all the moms out there had a great Mother's Day...We all know the MILF's did! Mother's Day...Shit, it should be called 'Dad get the kids out of here so Mom can be a lump all day!' I'm kidding, I'm kidding...I love all you moms out their....Especially my wife and my mom...Just remember ladies...Remember the lengths we go to on Mother's Day...Because it seems like when Father's Day rolls around, it gets blown off....Restaurants aren't booked solid for Father's Day...There isn't a big hoopla...A steak and a blow job should be the minimum requirement!
So, any big news stories this week....Oh yeah, THIS big story in the Cleve of course...I wrote that the night it broke...But after that I left the story alone...One of the reasons I left it alone was the Charles Ramsey angle...They guy was an instant media hit...Yes he did the right thing...But I was watching all his interviews, and then I heard his 9-1-1 call...I heard stuff that I expected, like him swearing...You could tell in some of the interviews he was fighting to keep certain words back...But the thing that bothered me was how his story changed in slight details, and how his 9-1-1 call didn't match with some stuff he said...Then there was the interview where he said, "I'm not a hero, I'm the definition of a man."
NOT SO FAST CHUCK...Yeah, you did the right thing...You along with another guy who got no love because he doesn't speak English...But Charles Ramsey has himself a hell of a record...Including 3 convictions for domestic violence and some unpaid child support...So while Charles Ramsey helped Amanda Berry break out of that door, and all of Cleveland is thrilled to have found these 3 young women alive, calling yourself "the definition of a man" is bullshit...Charles Ramsey may have changed his ways, but I don't think he can wear that label.
And right after the story broke people seemed quick to bash the police...Yeah, the 9-1-1 operator was an asshole...I think most people agree on that...And yes, police and the courts should have gone after this Castro bastard harder on stuff in his past...Like maybe when he beat the hell out of his ex-wife, busting up her shoulders, ribs, face, and causing a blood clot on her brain....Oh, and taking their kids and not returning them...Threatening to kill her...Yeah, people should have looked at this guy harder...But you can't blame every cop this...Especially when every time the city is in a budget crunch, they layoff Cops...The system is broken, not the police...
See, this is why I started light, with the MILF crap...because I knew this shit was gonna get heavier...
Well, may as well keep it heavy for a bit longer...Former Notre Dame Fullback, Asaph Schwapp died this past week after a long battle with cancer...He was 26 years old...Too damn young...
-So last week I brought up the NCAA Lacrosse Tourney...So here's what shook out this weekend...UNC beat Lehigh 16-7...Yale beat Penn State 10-7...Notre Dame beat Detroit Mercy 9-7...Denver beat Albany 19-14...Cornell beat Maryland 16-8...Ohio State beat Towson 16-6...Duke beat Loyal (md) 12-11 in double OT...and Syracuse beat Bryant 12-7...Action will pick back up Saturday...
-As for Hockey...The Rangers are killing me...There may not be enough beer in this house to get through Monday night's game 7 with the Capitals...Both teams have held their ground at home...So the Rangers have to break that Monday...Both Goalies have been amazing...5 of the the 6 games were won by won goal...Each goalie has a 1-0 victory...Braden Holtby is becoming an elite goalie right in front of our eyes...He's going toe-to-toe with Lunqvist...And the two superstar goal scores...ALexander Ovechkin, and Rick Nash have been shut down...It's the gritty, role players getting it done...
And Glen Sather looks like a genius for trading Marian Gaborik...Derrick Brassard has flourished with the Rangers, and has been one of their 3 best players in this series...John Moore, the young d-man has stepped right in, and shown he's an elite skater, with great hands, and loads of potential...And Derek Dorsett has played great in this series as well...One thing bothering me, is calling up Chris Krieder and giving him hardly any minutes...They refused to trade him in the Nash deal...He gave them great energy late last season...He has great speed...He's a play maker, and a goal scorer...Your team is struggling to score...He needs to be on the ice Torts!
Sunday night's game ended with some chippieness...Green and Ribero from the Capitals pulled a couple of cocksucker moves late in the game, and when the horn sounded at the end of the game...After the Ranger 1-0 win, the well composed unit let the Caps know they weren't forgetting about it...And the Caps were trying to get in their head for game 7...Monday night's game should be fun...But I'll be sure to have my blood pressure meds and a six-pack sitting next to me...
The Boston Bruins will also be in a game 7 Monday night...Some how they let the Maple Leafs back in, and all the sudden the Leafs are giving them fits....WOW! Who would of thunk it!
WOW! The weather got so nice in Cleveland on Sunday, it had everyone thinking about Summer...Which got me thinking about images like this one!
While my Brother-in-law in Boston is looking at another mountain of 20+ inches of snow, we're here with sun and 68 degrees....In the last year or two, there has been some crazy weather in the U.S. I mean we're hearing about Tornadoes year round now...Serious weather seems to be hitting everywhere...Well, except one place...The Cleve...Yes, we got some rain and serious wind from "Super Storm Sandy" but our homes didn't blow into the lake...Maybe Mother Nature has realized Cleveland has been shit on enough...
Besides that, we do enough damage ourselves...Just look what this dump truck driver did Saturday morning...
A large portion of I-90 has been closed all weekend while crews take that pedestrian bridge down...Dude knocked it off the pillars...Only in the fucking Cleve!
So, I have to admit that my writing has slipped lately...I've been distracted and tired...So Friday night I forced myself to write...I gave myself a time limit, and knocked out A_15_MINUTE_BLOG just to get my juices going and get shit off my chest...
Now I feel slightly recharged...
A couple months back I was talking about fan loyalty, and how owners and players don't show that same loyalty much these days...That piled on with years of watching Cleveland teams lose, I decided to go free agent...I said that I would choose my baseball team to root for in April...I'll still pay attention to the Indians, but they aren't making the cut...I think Terry Francona will get them going the right direction, but it's not happening this year just because they added 3 guys who hit below .265 and strike out a fucking ton...
I'll also pay attention to the Red Sox because of the family connection...I like that they added Joel Hanrahan...But as some one who kinda got hooked on the Pirates last year, that sucks for Pittsburgh...Also NESN always have hot chicks covering the Sox....
There's the former NESN chick Heidi Watney getting put in her place by the latest NESN hottie, Jenny Dell and her huge creamers! Which would you take?
This year, I'm focused on two teams...Both from the same area...The Baltimore Orioles, and the Washington Nationals...I really want to see if the Orioles can build on what they did last year...But I'm not waiting for April...The Nationals are my team this year...That Harper kid is good, and he's a cocky prick...I like that! Strasburg is a beast, and I'd love to see what he'll do with a full season...They've got a solid staff, and balanced lineup...Screw it...I'm signing a 2 year deal with the Nats!
And I'm not waiting for after the draft or free agency with Football...I have no faith in the Browns, and even if they land some big free agents, which is tough to do here, It will still take time, especially with the hellish QB situation this team has constantly been in...I'm all in with the Seattle Seahawks...Pete Carroll is a douche, but that's a hell of a team they've got going there...Plus, as much as a dick as Richard Sherman seems to be, I love that told off Skip Bayless last week...You can see that HERE...
- Saturday I posted some WISDOM from Bill Burr...The guy kills me...Just hilarious...There was another clip I was watching, and planning on posting...Then it was suggested to me to check it out by a facebook friend...Great minds right! So here's Bill on Gold Diggin' Whores...
Classic Bill Burr!
- I rarely talk Basketball, mainly because I don't watch it...There is nothing I like about the NBA...But I'm going to talk a bit of Basketball this week...Why? Because at one time I use to think Jason Whitlock was a good columnist...Now, after some of the shit he has written and tweeted over the last couple years, I realize he's almost as big of an ass-hat as Rick Reilly...This week Whitlock wrote a column stating that the entire NBA is afraid of LeBron James...REALLY? Why the hell would other elite NBA players be afraid of LeBron...This guy isn't the living legend that Whitlock and dolts at ESPN try to make him out to be...He's only has one NBA title...1...
Whitlock goes on to say that James and Dwayne Wade are the best duo the NBA has seen..."We’ve never seen anything like the pairing of James and Dwyane Wade. Two superstars playing at this level of efficiency, shooting over 50 percent from the field. They invented and perfected the three-quarter-court, alley-oop outlet pass. They popularized the chase-down, hear-my-footsteps blocked shot at the rim. They’re lethal at both ends of the court. James and Wade are 94 feet of hell. It might take a fluke or an injury to stop the Heat’s winning streak."
I'm not an expert on basketball, but this guy is nuts...Why doesn't he just give them credit for inventing the game...This shit is retarded...They've got one title together...They haven't proven shit yet...With age, Whitlock gets more and more full of shit!
Plus if you believe any bit of what Cleveland sports talk radio says, LeBron wants to come back to Cleveland to end his career...The rumors say he isn't happy in Miami...How much of that is true, I don't know...I know he crew isn't getting their asses kissed and put on the team payroll like they did here....Even worse is how many people would welcome him back with open arms...After all that hate...After feeling so screwed, they'd welcome him back...These are the same people who will never forgive Art Modell for moving HIS team...Gotta love the fucking Cleve!
In closing...Fuck LeBron James...Fuck Jason Whitlock....Cleveland is a bitch, but the Weather has been better then most places...Jenny Dell has great cans...Bill Burr rules...Go Nationals!
Some would read that and say that I have a personal ax to grind with the aforementioned Harper. It is actually quite the contrary. I feel he is a phenomenal talent, but my posts were backed up with thoughts of rushing a 19-year-old and playing to media sensationalism. Of course, Harper proved me wrong in terms of his maturity and his readiness to be a Major League star. And while I won't cave on my argument for Prado a year ago, the right evidence could easily beat me on the Rookie of the Year voting.
Well, I'm here today to prove that I am capable of change.
Harper has been on fire to start the spring and is already in mid-season form in regards to his cockiness and his desire to be in the line-up at any given time. Reading that lead me to reviewing what the stat pundits are predicting for the affable outfielder heading into his sophomore season. Before we get there, let's have a look at his stat-line from 2012, courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com:
Not bad at all for a 19-year-old who played just 56 games above A-Ball in his career. It shows just how advanced Harper was, but it also showed that there was room for improvement. So with that said, one would expect that the experts would see Harper as making a steady climb in 2013, right? Not exactly.
Noted statistician Bill James sees Harper making just modest gains in 2013:
659 PA/ 24 HR/ 105 R/ 65 RBI/ 20 SB/ .823 OPS
Dan Szymborski at The Baseball Think Factory, the man behind the ZiPS projections is a little more generous to Harper, but not much:
651 PA/ 26 HR/ 89 R/ 70 RBI/ 21 SB/ .834 OPS
So I have ask myself what these guys are seeing, or rather not seeing, from Harper's game? When all is said and done, their projections seem to be nothing more than extrapolating Harper's 2012 numbers over a full season. They don't seem to lend any real room for improvement, which you would have to expect from a player with such a lofty ceiling.
Sure, someone could point to the fact that a full winter of preparation by MLB scouts will help pitchers attack Harper better. That said, wouldn't we have seen a similar response to him later in the season, after he had been around the league once or twice and the book got out on him? Instead, we saw Harper have his best split in the season in September/October:
With that in mind, and a full year of maturity under his belt, if Harper is half the player that we are made to believe, than one would expect him to improve on last year's campaign, with his performance in the last month of the season as proof that he is adjusting to the league rather than the other way around.
While I am not predicting that Harper will have the astronomical numbers that Mike Trout had a year ago (Trout likely won't either for that matter), you have to give the man credit. He has proven the naysayers wrong and shown that he a more mature ballplayer than any other player at his age.
Isn't it time we start giving Bryce Harper credit where credit is due
FYI, this is just a placeholder post. My real post got wiped out last night and I am in the middle of rewriting it and will have it up later today. I apologize for the delay, but thought you might enjoy this in the meantime.
There are many times in life when you look in the mirror and say, “Oh, I wish I would have done that differently.” For the Washington Nationals, that moment is staring them right in the face.
More specifically, it is Stephen Strasburg that is staring back at them.
With a game five showdown on the horizon for 8:30pm tonight, and elimination in the cards the either St. Louis or Washington, you would ultimately want your ace on the hill in this situation. The Giants did when they sent Matt Cain to the hill on Thursday. The Reds lost with theirs, Mat Latos, on the mound. The Yankees and Orioles will likewise do so when Jason Hammel faces C.C. Sabathia on Friday night as well. The Cardinals will send Adam Wainwright to the mound.
The Washington Nationals have chosen to send 21-game winner Gio Gonzalez to the hill to face St. Louis. From a numbers standpoint, Gonzalez is certainly ace material. He led the National League with 21 wins and put up a respectable 2.89 ERA and 207 strike-outs in his first season with the Nationals.
However, he proved in game 1 that he is far away from striking fear into the hearts of the St. Louis Cardinals. In his five-inning outing in game 1, Gonzalez struck out five batters and gave up just a single hit. However, it was his seven walks that stood out, and the Cardinals let him off the hook by only plating two runs off of Gonzalez before the Nationals bullpen bailed him out.
Now sit there as a baseball fan and tell me that Gonzalez is the best man for the job tonight. Is there someone you would want out there more?
I can tell you that my preference would be to have Stephen Strasburg on the mound. The Stephen Strasburg that went 15-6 in his 28 starts. The Stephen Strasburg that had a 3.16 ERA and 197 strike-outs in just 159.1 innings pitched.
More importantly, the Stephen Strasburg that was shut down in order to limit his innings a year after having Tommy John surgery.
The move was already hotly debated as Washington was making their run toward their first ever division title. Questions about why you would want to shut down your ace with a chance to make serious noise in the postseason ran rampant and rightfully so. Now that moment is staring them in the face and Mike Rizzo is still unlikely to budge on it.
But isn’t this what you play for? Isn’t this the moment you are saving Strasburg for? Why wait for the future when the chance to win a championship is present and accounted for right now?
There are no guarantees in baseball and there are certainly no dynasties any more. The Nationals may be here today, but next season or a decade of seasons can go by before another chance like this comes about. You take it when it is in front of you and you run with it.
Trust me, Stephen Strasburg will not be happy to be watching from the dugout as his team gets eliminated because someone was overly cautious. He’ll remember the decision being made for him and his chance at glory slipping by. And Scott Boras will make the Nationals remember in 2017 if that chance never comes again. The rhetoric about playing for a contender will come up quite a bit, even if it’s nothing more than a money grab.
The Nationals need to play with their best cards on the table. And their trump card is Stephen Strasburg.
A couple of preliminary things. If I were going to do subjective rankings again, LSU was probably going to move down even with a win since I was surprised by Auburn’s loss to Arkansas (and Washington may well lose to Oregon). I thought the final score in that one was going to be the opposite. I’ve also updated the LSU/Florida entry to my rivalry series.
As to this season’s game, I was encouraged by a field goal on the opening drive, but it went almost all downhill offensively from there.
Instead of LSU QB Zach Mettenberger getting better, he seems to have gotten worse since the first couple of weeks of the season. Then he finally makes a good play, and the officials reverse a call from a play being dead to being a fumble with Florida recovering. I didn’t think this was possible, and I further don’t believe there was irrefutable video evidence that the play should not have been ruled dead. Regardless, I never thought it was possible to be credited with a fumble recovery after the whistle blew.
The announcers (Gary Danielson and Verne Lundquist) of course didn’t see any problem with what the refs did. They also didn’t regard the 56-yard completion as a third-down conversion, saying LSU was 0 for 9 at one point (before getting another first down on a screen pass). LSU also got a first down after a third down as a result of a penalty. So yes, LSU was poor on third downs, but there were two situations in which they had first downs; but they’re not being counted, so the 1/13 stat is misleading.
I’m not trying to say it was all about the call even though let’s say I’m skeptical. The way LSU was playing, they would have probably only gotten a field goal, making the final score 14-9 instead. It doesn’t always work that way, but that’s how I think it would have happened.
