The SoapBoxers

NFL officials returned to action last night.  Fans at the game gave then a standing ovation – quite possibly an unprecedented occurrence.  The league came to an agreement with officials just days after a bad call – the latest in a series – cost the Green Bay Packers a win.  The league said they wouldn’t cave to public pressure – but I think they did.  The NFL is a money making machine, and the replacement officials were possibly costing the NFL more (lost revenue due to fans turning off the TV) than the extra money the officials were asking for.

Let’s be careful not to place too much blame on the replacement officials.  If your star quarterback can’t play, and you’re forced to throw a seventh round draft pick into the fire,  the kid isn’t going to throw for 300 yards and 4 touchdowns.  Same situation here – the officials didn’t have the skill level necessary for the job, but they gave it their best effort.

Baseball

In the National League, the Cardinals now have a three game lead in the wild card with six games to go.  They’re in good position, but with the collapses of the Braves and Red Sox last year in their memory banks, they are sure to play hard until they have officially clinched a spot.

In the American League, the White Sox have been fading while the Tigers have been a bit stronger down the stretch.  The Tigers now have a two game lead.

The Rangers are on the brink of a playoff berth, but aren’t quite there yet.  If they lose their final six (three games each against contenders Oakland and Anaheim) they could drop into a tie for the last wild card spot.  It’s getting down the “must win” time for Anaheim and Tampa Bay, down two games in the wild card with six to go.  Personally, I’d like to see Oakland and Anaheim as the two wild cards, but that’s pretty unlikely. 

My Rockies just finished off a sweep of the Chicago Cubs.  The Rockies had been playing poorly in recent weeks and were careening toward their first 100 loss season.  Now the Rockies need just one more win to keep losses in the double digits.

Post-season award predictions:

I’ll make my guesses:

American League

MVP: Mike Trout.  Even if you ignore the fact that he’s 21, Trout is having an absolutely historic season, combining high batting average, power, speed, and defense.  The $200 million question is whether Trout has peaked of whether he can get even better.  Miguel Cabrera has had a great year, but the runs he gives away on defense come into play.

Rookie of the Year: Mike Trout, unanimous selection.  Nobody else is even in the room with Trout.

Cy Young: This may be tight, but I think David Price will edge out Dustin Verlander and Matt Harrison.

National League

MVP: I think Buster Posey will beat out Andrew McCutchen based on the Giants making the playoffs and the Pirates falling out of contention.  Really, Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina should also be in the discussion, because of the value he provides with both glove and bat.

Rookie of the Year: I think the hype carries Bruce Harper to the win, even though Wade Miley is probably more deserving.  Who is leading NL rookies in homers and RBI?  The  answer will probably surprise you.  It’s rookie catcher Wilin Rosario of the Rockies with 27 bombs and 70 ribbies.

Cy Young: Knuckleballer R.A. Dickey notched his 20th win, and I think the narrative around his career will help him win the award.  Watch out for Braves closer Craig Kimbrel if Dickey and Gio Gonzalez of the Nationals split the starting pitcher vote.

 Angels rookie sensation Mike Trout has been a trendy pick for the American League MVP for a few months now.  Recently, however, Miguel Cabrera of the Tigers has picked up steam as he has a shot at winning the triple crown (batting average, home runs, RBI).  Here are how the players stack up in those categories (note: Cabrera has 66 more at bats).

Mike Trout

Miguel Cabrera

Supporters of Cabrera point out the fact that Cabrera is leading Trout in all three categories, while Trout “just” leads in WAR (wins above replacement) – which he leads by a dominating margin.  While certainly WAR is not the perfect statistic, it’s a far better indicator of a player’s value than the triple crown stats are.  Cabrera has 50 more RBI than Trout.  Well, yeah.  He’s batting #3 in the lineup and Trout is batting leadoff.  There will be more players on base for Cabrera to drive in.  There have been 427 runners on base for Cabrera and 284 on base for Trout.  Trout has driven in 50/284 (17.6%) and Cabrera has driven in 91/427 (21.3%).  Still an edge to Cabrera, but much smaller.  RBI is as much a factor of the other players on your team as your own ability.  Throw me into the middle of the Rangers lineup and I could probably drive in 75 runs.

There are a couple of big factors that WAR accounts for and the triple crown numbers don’t:

• Trout has 47 steals (caught 4 times) compared to 4 for Cabrera (1 caught).
• Trout plays a premium defensive position (center field) and plays it well.  Cabrera players a corner infield position (less defensive value) and plays it poorly – so poorly that is defense costs his team wins.  There’s a huge difference between Trout’s defensive value and Cabrera’s.

The triple crown is indeed rare, but so is a 10+ WAR season.  Only two players since 1960 have posted a 10+ WAR season and failed to win the MVP that year.  Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle. Just give the award to Trout.

National League Update:

The Nationals, Braves, Reds, and Giants have all clinched playoff berths.  The Reds and Giants have clinched the division, while the Nationals have a four game lead on the Braves.  The Cardinals have a 4.5 game lead on the Brewers and Dodgers in the wild card – probably a safe lead at this point in the season.

American League Update 

In the American league, zero teams have clinched a playoff spot.  In the Central, the White Sox and Tigers and tied, with the loser almost certainly left out of the playoffs.  The Yankees are 1.5 games up on Baltimore in the East.  In the West, all 8 remaining games for the Rangers are against the A’s (5 games) and Angels (3 games).  The lead the A’s by 4 games and the Angels by six games.  Any of those three teams could end up as the division champion, wild card team, or left completely out of the playoffs.  The Devil Rays are just 3 games back of the final playoff spot.  In total, eight American League teams remain in serious playoff contention in the final week of the season.

New playoff format

The playoffs are very different this year.  There is a second wild card team, and those two teams face off in a one game playoff to advance to the next round. This is commonly being referred to as the “coin flip round”.  The next round will be a five game series.  Instead of a typical 2-2-1 format (with the first two games and final game hosted by the better team) this is a 2-3 format, with the first two games hosted by the worse team.  The #1 seed in each league will actually have to wait until the end of the wild card game to know their first round opponent – and then need to jump on a plane and start the playoffs on the road, against a team that had some time off after winning the coin flip game.  The 2-3 format will only be used this year (because it’s a horrible idea) due to scheduling constraints.  MLB added the coin flip game after the regular season schedule had already been set.

World Baseball Classic

Canada and Spain won their qualifiers and advanced to the main tournament.  Canada romped through their games 11-1, 16-7, and 11-1.  Spain actually lose their second round game against Israel, but then advanced out of the loser’s bracket to face Israel in the finals.  They won that game and advanced.  The qualifiers are not true double elimination tournaments, so Israel was bounced despite only having one loss.  The other two qualifying tournaments are in November.

My team, the Rockies, are not in contention for a playoff spots, so my mind has been wandering a bit.  I got to thinking about the 2013 World Baseball Classic (essentially, the World Cup for baseball).  I went online to check the schedule for the WBC.  To my surprise, the qualifying tournaments have already begun.  Israel picked up a 7-3 win against South Africa yesterday.

Since basball is no longer and Olympic sport, the WBC is now the only major international showcase for baseball.  The rules for player eligibility are fairly loose.  A nation may use a player whose ancestors came from that country, even that was several generations ago.  There is nothing (other than lack of talent) to prevent me from palying for the German team.  The Israeli team will use players of Jewish heritage, regardless of nationality.  Nations can also use players from their territories, which is why a number of players for The Netherlands in 2009 didn’t look very Dutch … they were from places like Curacao.

In 2009 and 2012, sixteen teams participated in the tournament.  The tournament was by invitation only.  This has changed for the 2013 WBC.  The eight teams who won at least one game in 2009 gained automatic bids to the 2013 WBC.  The other four teams were dropped into four qualifying tournaments, along with twelve new teams.  Thus, a total of 28 teams (12 automatic qualifers and 16 teams in the qualifying tournaments) have a chance to play in the WBC.

Here is the breakdown of teams :

Automatic qualifiers:

• Japan (2004 and 2009 champion)
• South Korea (2nd in 2009)
• Venezuela (3rd)
• USA (4th)
• Puerto Rico
• Cuba
• Netherlands
• Mexico
• Dominican Republic
• Italy
• China
• Australia

Qualifier 1 (Sept 19-23, 2012, Florida)

• Israel
• South Africa
• France
• Spain

South African was in the 2009 Classic, but they’ll have a tough row to hoe in order to get back.  The favorite in this group is Israel, which fields a team of players with significant experience in the minor leagues.  Very few of the players are actually from Israel, with most of the players being Jewish players from other nations.  Spain also has a decent team.

Qualifier 2 (Sept 20-24, 2012, Germany)

• Great Britain
• Canada
• Czech Republic
• Germany

Canada was 0-2 in 2009, but this is a good team.  They are ranked #5 in the International Baseball Federation rankings.  It will be an upset if the Canadians don’t win.

Qualifier 3 (Nov 15-17, 2012, Panama)

• Brazil
• Panama
• Nicaragua
• Colombia

Panama is was in the 2009 Classic, but they’ll be pushed by Colombia and Nicaragua.  I’d expect this to be the most competitive of the qualifiers.  I’ll give the nod to Panama, since the games will be played there.

Qualifier 4 (Nov 15-18. Taiwan)

• Thailand
• Phillippines
• New Zealand
• Chinese Tapei (Taiwan)

This is probably the least competitive group.  Chinese Tapei is the only team ranked in the world top 20 and should have a relatively easy path to victory.

Another week in the books and overall there were some HORRIBLE games this past week.

Alabama and Arkansas was supposed to be a big game. That was until Arkansas lost to Louisiana Monroe and then proceeded to also lose their starting quarterback for the game against the Crimson Tide. In case anyone is doubting Nick Saban and the 52-zippo blanking of the Hogs, trust me, the Tide is good. How two voters in the polls still think otherwise is beyond me.

Paper Spartan???

Andrew Maxwell fumbles against Notre Dame

Michigan State proved finally to a national audience what Johnny G has been spreading around the water cooler all year – OVER-RATED. The problem is two-fold with their loss. One, it just further cements the fact the B1G 10 is not having a banner year and two, the fact that Notre Dame beat the Spartans just adds more fuel for the Gold Dome zealots who are proclaiming that Brian Kelly is the program savior. If he is that good of a coach, I just hope he is not as big of a cheater as Lou Holtz……

Meeeeeechigan versus Notre Dame

On the topic of Notre Dame, This upcoming week, (or should I say WEAK) is good time to go golfing with your buddies as there are a ton of barely watchable games filling the airwaves. We have Michigan and Notre Dame and then….not much else to look forward to except maybe Clemson against Florida State. I am not much of a fan of the ACC but this is the only other game likely to get much play nationally this week.

The highlight of week 4 from the National Spotlight will be Michigan versus Notre Dame – Mainly because…well…it is Notre Dame playing.

I am rooting for my buddy Aaron, (sorry Denis and K.R.) in a match-up of teams my friends root for. Go Blue. Johnny supports you!

Weak B1G 10

And since I mentioned a week of weak games, I might as well stay with the topic of weak – – – in the B1G 10, the Ohio State Bunkeyes barely crept out a win against the California Bears at home this past week. (Yes, that is right, I said Bunkeyes) Cal looked to have them on the ropes until a busted coverage late in the game gave Braxton Miller an easy long touchdown stat padding completion. I took Braxton off the Heisman 5 this week, mainly because some others needed props. Ohio State at this point is clearly the best team in the otherwise weak conference….too bad they can’t play for anything meaningful to end the season….cheaters.

A Tale of Two Mannings

Wow totally different ends of the spectrum for the Mannings in the NFL this week. Eli throws for 510 and 3 TD’s (also had three interceptions) in a win over the Buccaneers in a real life version of Tecmo SuperBowl, and Peyton throws 3 first quarter picks in a loss last night to the Falcons. A word of warning to the AFC. The NFC seems to have the cream of the early season crop of teams. Let’s see if everyone stays healthy and they are the ones to beat at the end of the year.

Heisman Watch – Week 3

1. Rakeem Cato – Quarterback – Marshall – Averaging a crazy 423 yards per game. Of course it is Marshall, but here is some love for the MAC – he leads the NCAA in total offense. Through three weeks that gets you top billing.
2. Geno Smith – Quarterback – West Virginia – Running roughshod with just two games under the belt, but is 2nd in the nation with an incredible 409 yards per game total offense. Finally might be showing he is legit since Matt “can’t ever beat Stanford” Barkley checked out last week.
3. Jonathan Franklin – Running Back – UCLA – Still leading the nation in rushing with 180+ a game, and still high on Johnny’s Heisman Watch list
4. Denard Robinson – adding some huge stat padders against Air Force and Massachusetts. This week he gets the Golden Domers…so if he is here next week, that means Big Blue fared better than those Spartans of East Lansing.
5. Darius Slay – DB- Mississippi State – What? A defensive guy on the Heisman top 5? He does lead the nation in interceptions with 4 in 3 games and he took one to the house for 6. Plus I love the last name. Slay just sounds like a bad ass defensive player doesn’t it?

Until Next Time, Stay Classy Homewood, Alabama

Baseball bell lap has begun, with just one month remaining in the season.  As baseball winds down, there are several story lines to watch.

Teams I’ll Be Watching

Pirates closer Joel Hanrahan

Pittsburgh Pirates – The last time the Pirates has a winning season, I was still in high school.  Barring a complete collapse down the stretch, the Pirates should at least get to 82 wins.  Pittsburgh is currently 2 1/2 games out of the final National League wild card spot.  Although I also like the Cardinals (who currently hold the final spot), I’m definitely pulling for the Pirates to make the playoffs.  I think it would be great for the fan base to have a playoff appearance.  Although an entire generate of young fans doesn’t realize it, this is a franchise with a proud and successful past.

Orioles closer Jim Johnson

Baltimore Orioles – Through Monday, the Orioles were 15 games over .500 (74-59) with a run differential of -31.  Of all the other teams with a run differential worse than -25, the next best record is the Mets at 64-71 (7 games under .500).  The Orioles bullpen has been great, allowing them to win close games (which allows a team winning percentage to exceed the projected based on run differential).  It remains to be seen whether they can make a playoff run … but through Monday, they were just one game behind the Yankees. 

Players I’ll Be Watching

Mike Trout

Mike Trout – At this point, Trout has the American League Rookie of the Year award in the bag and is making a strong case for MVP.  Although Ichiro won the MVP in his “rookie” season, he was already a well established professional player at that point.  The only “true” rookie to win the MVP was Fred Lynn in 1975.  Through Monday, Trout was hitting .336 with 25 homers and 43 steals (caught 4 times) and 108 runs scored in 112 games.  If the Angels managed to make the playoffs, it will be due to Trout.  Trout spent the first month in the minors.  However, it’s hard to blame the Angels for sending him down to start the year, as he was sick during much of spring training.  Trout’s season is going be one for the ages.  He has a shot to win a batting title, hit 30 homers, and steal 50 bases (in an abbreviated season) all while providing signficant defensive value in the outfield … in his age 20 season. 

The real challenge may be in trying to match his 2012 output in future season.  Trout could conceivably have a Hall of Fame caliber career while never touching those numbers again.  A .290 career batting average with 450 homers and 500 steals would almost certainly get him into Cooperstown – something he could do by averaging 23 homers and 25 steals over a 20 year career.

Albert Pujols – After signing a monster contract with the Angels in the off-season, Pujols struggled mightily in April.  He has righted the ship in recent months.  Through Monday, Pujols was hitting .287 with 29 homers and 92 RBI.  He’s still a tick below his career numbers, but that will happen when you basically throw a month away.  I think we need to be a little slower to judge players who switch leagues.  Some guys take a bit longer to adjust, but do just fine once they get locked in.  Matt Holliday was the same way in Oakland – after his initial struggles, he really hit well before being traded to St. Louis.

Stephen Straburg – Strasburg’s season will likely come to an end September 12.  The Nationals have an innings cap and will shut him down once he reaches that number.  This means that Strasburg will not be a part of the post-season for the Nationals.  I personally think this is a wise move for the Nationals.  Putting 220+ innings of work on a recently Tommy Johned elbow seems to be a risky proposition.  This is a team that is built to contend over the long run.  Don’t blow out a young arm.

Bryce Harper

Bryce Harper – Harper gets overshadowed on his own team by the Strasburg talk and doesn’t fare well in comparisons to Mike Trout.  To be fair, no rookies will ever fare well in a comparison to Trout.  However, Harper has actually been a slightly above average hitter this year.  That’s actually an incredible achievement for a 19 year old.  Most 19 year olds in professional baseball are playing in cities like Grand Junction, Cedar Rapids, and Delmarva.  Harper’s career is still 100% on track.

Plenty more to watch

These definitely aren’t the only story lines to watch.  The Nationals are looking to make their first playoff appearance and do it with the best record in baseball.  The Angel, despite the heroics of Trout and Pujols, are still outside the playoff picture.  The Devil Rays are knocking on the playoff door … and could the backsliding Yankees fall out of the playoffs?  Those stories and more as the regular season winds down.

Congrats to Kevin Goldstein

Kevin Goldstein

On Friday, it was announced that Kevin Goldstein would become the professional scouting director for the Astros (professional scouting pertains to minor league and Major League players, as opposed to scouting of unsigned amateurs).  A lot of scouting directors work their way through the scouting ranks of an organization before being promoted to an executive role.  Goldstein moves into the job after writing (and podcasting) about prospectus, mostly for Baseball Prospectus.  His expertise is very well respected, but it’s still a somewhat out of the box hire.  The move also resulted in the death of my favorite baseball podcast, Up and In.

Week #1 is in the books. Many were aghast at how Alabama handled Michigan. Wisconsin and Iowa really struggled and were to a large extent lucky to escape with victories last week. A few even went to bed early to ensure they were up for Cheerios, their morning cup of joe…and the Fighting Irish.

Dear ESPN

The cameras were once again focused on Happy Valley. Not much to be happy about there these days when it comes to football. I predicted last week in my article that the Ohio Bobcats, or as we call them at the SoapBoxers – the Fighting Frank Soliches, would pull off a win at Beaver Stadium. Penn State came out full of emotion with jerseys full of names on the backs for the first time ever. They left after being outcoached, and outplayed by a veteran quarterback Tyler Tettleton. The most interesting thing that ESPN/ABC could manage to say about Tettleton is that his dad played Major League Baseball.

A more interesting fact would be why the Buckeye Band always spells the word OHIO and NOT Ohio St. in their big pre-game routine before each game. I assume ALL of the Bobcat fans love when the Buckeyes dot the “I” in Ohio – – as clearly that is a sign of solidarity for the state of Ohio. Either that or the teachers at OSU have never taught the band to spell out “STATE”

Regardless of this useless trivia factoid digression, ESPN had no post game interview with the winning Ohio coach, Frank Solich in what is undoubtedly one of the biggest victories in terms of “Big Wins” for the program while at Ohio University (next to their bowl game win last year, the first in school history) Instead the geniuses at ESPN put a camera in front of the losing coach, Bill O’Brien

This next week the cameras will be on again as Penn State travels to Virginia to take on the Cavaliers…I guess they will have the losing coach interview two weeks in a row. Maybe a better question is why is a team that barely skirted the “Death Penalty” on television every week thus far?

Is it Too Early?

Le-Veon Bell

To talk Heisman Trophy? I think it is but again the sports hacks that blog and that “report” the news have nothing better to write about. In this day and age of instant news and constant speculations, it is normally the best beauty pageant job marketing a good player by one of the major sports sources (ESPN, ABC, CBS) that helps a player garner the most votes at the end of the year.

Matt Barkley will be in the early lead and frankly it is likely his award to lose since most of the talking heads have already anointed him the man to beat…(of course that was the case for Andrew Luck for the past two years as well and he never received the hardware)

Unlike the copycats that all put the same names on the dotted line in the fishwrap each week, I am giving you my top Heisman Contenders after week #1 based on statistics and performance alone.

#1 – Le-Veon Bell – Michigan State – All he did was tote the mail a whopping 44 times for 210 yards for the Spartans in a win over ranked Boise State. The otherwise anemic offense relied totally on Bell, who added another 55 yards receiving for the game but the Broncos still could not stop him.

#2 – Austin Franklin – New Mexico State, hauled in 8 catches for an incredible 236 yards and 2 touchdowns against lackluster Idaho State.

#3 – Braxton Miller – Ohio State – I am going to seem like a B1G 10 homer this week but as Shakira says…the Stats don’t Lie. Miller rolled it up on weak Miami of Ohio, passing for 207 and 2 touchdowns and running for 161 yards and another score. If his passing numbers were not so weak, he would be higher on the list.

#4 – Johnathan Franklin – UCLA – ran out of control in the opener with 214 yards and 3 TD’s on just 15 attempts. He should face a bit of a better defense in Nebraska this week than he saw in the opener. And speaking of the Huskers…

#5 – Taylor Martinez – Nebraska – Looked like the reincarnation of Vince Ferragamo as he threw for 5 touchdowns and 354 yards while completing over 76% of his attempts in a rout of Southern Miss, the defending Conference USA Champions.

Until next time….Stay classy Reynoldsburgh, Ohio.

Melky Cabrera

Giants outfielder Melky Cabrera has been one of the positive stories of 2012, building upon a solid 2011 season with another good season.  A $50 million contract extension was within grasp.  Then he got caught using synthetic testosterone and face a 50 game suspension.  Even if the Giants were to make the playoffs – a more difficult proposition without Cabrera in the lineup – he would be not be eligible to play until the NLCS.

If the story had ended there, it would be bad enough.  Later, news came out that Cabrera had blamed the positive test on a contaminated supplement.  Had this been true – that an unlisted ingredient caused the positive test – this would have been a get out of jail free card.  To bolster his case, Cabrera (or those working for him) created a web site promoting a non-existent supplement that was purportedly the cause.  Melky had engaged in a cover-up after the positive test.  Major League Baseball was not fooled.

In my opinion, Cabrera is getting off easy if he simply serves a 50 game suspension.  I feel that he should be punished both for the actual drug use and for attempting to deceive Major League Baseball.

As a tech guy, I’m curious exactly what Cabrera did.  Did he simply register a brand new domain under his named (easily sniffed out using a WHOIS) – or did he step up the level of sophistication by purchasing an “aged” domain and registering it under the name of a different entity?

Colon also busted

This week, former Cy Young winner Bartolo Colon also tested positive for performance enhancing drugs.  Colon had been pitching well for the A’s after a solid year last year for the Yankees.  Colon had encountered injuries after his 21-8 2005 campaign and was on pace to eclipse 200 innings pitched for the first time since that year.

Hamilton Breaks Record

Billy Hamilton – 148 steals so far this year

19th century player Billy Hamilton – #3 in Major League career steals.

Reds AA shortstop “Sliding” Billy Hamilton stole four based on Tuesday night and in the process broke Vince Coleman’s 30 year old single season minor league stolen base record.  Coleman’s record was 145; Hamilton is at 148 and counting.  Hamilton was promoted the AA in mid-season and has a chance to lead two different leagues in stolen bases in the same year.  He is now 3 stolen bases ahead of Josh Prince for the Southern League lead (despite playing only 40 games compared to 127 for Prince) and is 19 ahead of Rico Noel in his old league, the California League (despite playing 40 fewer games than Noel.

The question marks surrounding Hamilton are whether he’ll be good enough to stick at shortstop, and whether he’ll be able to walk at a decent clip in the majors.  He has a good walk rate in the minors, but his anemic power may cause pitchers to challenge him in the majors and take their chances on batted balls.  He’s a “not good, not bad” defender at shortstop, but his great speed could make him a very good center fielder.

Around the Majors

Other news of note:

Nationals GM Davey Johnson says that the Nats may sit Stephen Strasburg down in later September, causing him to miss 2-3 starts.  No word on whether he would pitch in the post-season.  Strasburg is coming off Tommy John surgery and the Nationals are trying to limit his workload in order to prevent future arm problems.

The Houston Astros fired manager Brad Mills.  While the Astros are certainly having a very bad year (36 1/2 games out of first place in their division), it could hardly be characterized as disappointing.  The Astros have traded away nearly all of their players in an effort to cut costs and stockpile prospects.  As a result, the team Mills put on the field every day was always outmanned by the other team.  Mills will get another chance to manage.

A surge by the Cardinals has dropped the Pirates into third place in the National League wild card race (the top two non-division winners make the playoffs).  It will be interesting to see if Clint Hurdle can get the Bucs into the playoffs.  At the very least, he needs to get them 15 wins so that they can finish with a winning record for the first time in 20 years.

Kurt Warner played in ArenaBall and NFL Europe before getting his NFL shot.

We are rapidly approaching a unique annual event in professional sports, the team down selects. Unlike other sports with the down select in the NFL, many athletes who were considered for the highest level of play will simply be unemployed. The NFL sets a specific limit of players who can be on an active roster or part of the practice squad (players owned by a team who can be called up to the active roster). As part of the preseason, that number decreases in steps to 75 players on August 27 and 53 players on August 31. Part of the purpose of preseason games is to determine who will be part of that 53 man squad for each team.

Unlike Baseball and Hockey, Football has on “farm” system. Some players can be assigned to NFL Europe to play over the summer, but are still subject to be cut with nowhere to go. They have to look in different leagues or the dream of playing professionally is over. In Baseball at least, if a player is having some issues, he can go down to the minors for a while to recover. If that recovery does not happen, then he is cut loose.

Part of the reason for the differences in sports is the limited number of games played per year in Football (16 regular season) compared to Baseball (162), Hockey (82) or Basketball (82). Part is because of the huge number of players available compare to teams. There are 117 Championship Series colleges (old Division 1A) each with up to 99 players. Even if we say there are an average of 60 and only a quarter of them are available each year, that is 15 x 117 or 1755. There are only 32 teams in the NFL which would provide 54 new players for each team, or the whole roster. On average, a player will be on an NFL team for 5 years after he makes the first cut.

This is not an all doom and gloom event. Many of the players who are given a chance during the preseason are just not ready for the big show. This is their opportunity to play under the light in the really big stadiums and where a real NFL uniform. Also, some plays, who appear to have little chance of making the team, shine is a way that no other venue would provide.

There are always stories of a player who seems to miss the chance and comes back to be a star. James Harrison is one such example. He was undrafted and actually cut by the Pittsburgh Steelers, signed by the Baltimore Ravens, cut again, then came back to be defensive player of the year (with the Steelers again). This is of course the exception rather than the rule.

Preseason in the NFL can be very exciting. Fans are looking for those players who can make their teams contenders. Players on the edge are trying to make the team. Everyone is making mistakes, either because they are new to the team or they are rusty from the off season. This year, there is a lock out of the normal referees and the NFL cannot take from the NCAA due to an agreement between the organizations. That kind of makes it even more of a free for all in the later stages of each game.

May the best players be found, all give their best efforts, and most important, pray that none of the players get hurt.

Crunchy doesn’t have an article today.  She does, however, have a new baby boy.  He was born yesterday morning.  That’s 4 little boys in her house now …

I don’t feel like writing an article about one particular thought this week, so I’ll bounce around a bit.

Olympics

I didn’t get the chance to watch nearly as much of the Olympics as I would have like.  I did make an effort to keep up on what was going on, though.

My personal highlight was Jake Varner’s wrestling gold medal.  Jake and I share an alma mater – Iowa State University.  I’m very proud to have Varner add his name to a collection of Iowa State wrestlers who have gone on to win gold – including living legends Dan Gable and Cael Sanderson. 

London organizer Sebastian Coe caught some flak for failing to state that Michael Phelps was the greatest Olympian ever.  While Phelps is definitely one of the greatest ever, Coe was caught in the difficult position of trying to compare athletes from different sports.  Swimming (and track) afford an athlete more opportunities to medal.  Let’s take boxing, for example.  If a boxer were to match Phelps’s record of 22 medal, it would require medals in 22 consecutive Olympic games, spanning 84 years.  While in raw numbers, this would simply match Phelps, in reality it would be a far more impressive feat.  If we only look at raw medal counts, this would mean that only athletes from a handful of sports could ever make the claim to be “great” Olympians.  It’s simply not feasible for boxers, wrestlers, basketball players, or hockey players to win 10+ medals.

Melky

Melky Cabrera was one of the feel good stories on 2012.  He was hitting .346 for the year and was the All Star game MVP.  After years of struggling, Cabrera was putting up good seasons in back to back year and appeared to be turning into a very good major league player.  The dream season came to a crashing halt Wednesday, when Cabrera was suspended 50 games for using testosterone.  The loss of Cabrera puts the playoff chances of the Giants in serious doubt.

Paul Ryan

Mitt Romney selected Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan as his running mate.  Expect the budget to become a major issue in debates.  Ryan’s budget plan was the one the Republican congress pitted against Obama’sd budget.

Aside from a stint as driver of the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile, Ryan has worked in the political arena his entire career.

What are you watching?

I managed to get a chance to see Avatar this week.  I found the story very enjoyable.  While I usually don’t dig too hard to find a deeper meaning in a movie (I prefer to simply be entertained), it’s pretty hard to misss the point of Avatar.  It’s a sci-fi movie, but also has an interesting love story.  I definitely recommend it.
 

Fantasy Football Fantastic!

We have just started the NFL Pre-Season and now is the time when many of us turn on our computers and log into the draft- room.

Yep, it is time for fantasy football drafts.

Which Type of Fantasy Leaguer Are You?

I categorize Fantasy Football leagues into one of three categories. And it has nothing to do with what the entry fees are. They include:

The Eager Beaver League: These leagues have already held their drafts. They were likely already working out draft orders, dinner menus back in May. These leagues are made up of the die hards that yearn for the best part of any fantasy league….the DRAFT. Of course they get this out of the way early only to see their star players hurt in pre-season, arrested, suspended or cut from the team. If only they could have waited a few more weeks.

The Average Joe League: This is what 95% of leagues fall into in terms of statistical categorization. They hold their draft in the middle of pre-season as close as possible to the kick-off of the first ACTUAL games. This give all players plenty of time to study all of the overpriced draft magazine, dedicated hour long FFL shows, chat room message boards and trial and error from other leagues they may have already participated in. These players have done countless mock drafts, analyzed all of the 3 deep depth charts, and have already made nice with the spouse to get the extra couple of nights to hang with the group and have a few beverages and act like college aged kids once again.

The Better Late Than Never League: Two types of people fall into this category. They are either people that at the last minute decide they can get their work buddies or fellow students together to put together that last minute league, even though the season has already started…OR…you get the people that were in the Eager Beaver Leagues that miss the action of draft night SO BADLY, that they sign up for another one, even if it breaks every fantasy rule they hold tried and true (meaning it pains them to be doing it late) but they do it anyway, for the thrill of the draft.

Mucho Importante!

Which gets me to the most important part of any fantasy league, be it baseball, football, basketball, golf, hockey, water polo, Equestrian, Checkers, whatever….the Draft is the single most important part of your time in the league as well as the single most fun part of being in the league.

You can spend a lot of money subscribing to insider information, purchasing 14 different magazine and forecast tools for players – – – or you can do a little research and get together with your friends and have a good time.

Weather you play for just pride, a ton of money, or just a cheesy gold trophy resembling something that your dad would have won from his Thursday late-night bowling league, it is a good and fun time to participate, and the draft is always the highlight of every league I have ever been in.

College Anyone?

I for one am planning on entering a college fantasy league for the first time ever. There are a number of sites that offer this free of charge and you end up competing against people from all over the country as you simply sign up to join a league. Guess this means I better start researching the MAC for that bullet armed quarterback, or the Ohio Valley for that never heard before place kicker. Maybe the Mountain West has a stud tight end that has slipped under my previous radar.

All I know is that as World Champion of the World last year in two of the three leagues I competed in, I now my fellow competitors will be amped up and gunning to get me. One of those leagues is not taking place this year (I guessed I scared them all off) but I have added a new one to take its place

So….. Farm Leaguers, Big Ballers Big X Legends and Leaders, Johnny is back for bragging rights and will be talking smack on draft night. Consider yourself advised…..

Until Next Time, Stay Classy St. Onge, South Dakota.