Saturday, April 21, 2012

Max answer's PTI questions

PTI is a show on ESPN usually involving Tony Kornheiser and Mike Wilbon who debate the day's sports and entertainment headlines. I'll pretend the question's are aimed at me.

The First Word (note, this is from Wednesday's show [4/18/12]):

1) Worthy of lengthy suspension?
Absolutely.  As of the show airing it was indefinitely and now it's 25 games meaning if the Coyotes were to win the Stanley cup, it would continue into next year.  It's not the first time Rafi Torress has been in trouble from the NHL disiplinary office and even though Marian Hossa who Torres launched off his feet to crush, got released from the hospital with no apparant injury.  I would've suspended him for even longer.

2)  How impressive is feat?
Jamie Moyer just became the oldest pitcher to ever win a major league game with a 5-3 win over San Diego on Tuesday night.  That's a great feat in it's own right, but I think the biggest feat is that he has 232 career wins after the age of 30!  That's a lot more than pitchers have in their entire career.  That and the fact he was almost out of the league makes 232 career wins after age 30 more impessive then becoming oldest pitcher to ever win a game.  With the style Moyer pitches he can probably last a couple more seasons.

3) is Carmelo this year's Dirk?
No, because the Knicks aren't even that good.  Sure, the Mavs may have gotten a bit lucky last year winning the championship, but at least they were a legit championship contender finishing 3rd in the West.  The Knicks won't be finishing higher than 7th in the East, and will be a complete surprise if they even make it past the second round.  Chances are they won't even get past round 1, yet alone win the championship

4) Does NBA have a tanking problem?
If the NBA actually drafted in the order teams finished (worst record drafts 1st, second worst second, etc), then I'd agree.  Golden State is tanking however in order to keep their draft pick.  If Golden state finishes outside the top 7 their 1st round pick goes to Utah.  Charlotte, however is just bad.  When your best player wouldn't come off the bench for some of the good teams, your team was doomed from the get-go.

5) Blocking player's transfer?
Next time a coach wants to leave a school for greener pastures and more money, the players should block the move.

Report Card:

1) Grading Philly Daily News Backpage?
A. It's not this from the NY Post Saturday: https://twitter.com/#!/maxl100/status/193769353030799361/photo/1 but the Philly Daily news labeled Sidney Crosby a "cowardly Penguin."

2) Grading Spurs win?
B+.  Last week with Kobe Bryant, the Spurs let Andruw Bynum get 30 rebounds in a home loss to the Lakers.  This time in LA without Kobe, the Spurs handed the Lakers their worst home loss in 4 or 5 years.

3) Grading Throwbacks?
F.  Uniforms looked mustard color.  Horrible design by the Steelers

4) Grading Ultimate Frisbee Catch?
C.  There's an ultimate frisbee league, and you actually got the jumping, 1 handed catch on video??

Big Finish:

1) Will Attend Fenway Ceramony?
Good, Terry Francona should attend it.  He was contemplating not attending, but wanted to do it for the fans.  Him, along with Bill Buckner got one of the biggest ovations at Friday's ceramony for Fenway's 100 year anniversary.

2) Entire Starting 5 Going Pro?
Not surprising, everyone saw that coming.  Now let's see if the coach joins them.

3) Pistons Led Cavs 100-50?
2 bad teams, but this is what happens when 1 bad team is actually trying to win games (the Detroit Pistons) and 1 bad team that just wants the season to end and is sitting everyone relevent (Cleveland Caviliers).

4)  12 Wins For Redskins?
What does Alex Trabek, the host of jeopardy, know about football??

5)  Will Canucks Be Swept?
Even on Wednesday I would've said no.  The games have been close; 3 previous games were all tied or 1 goal games in the 3rd period.  President trophy teams don't get swept in the first round.  They may still lose, and probably will, but because they won Wednesday night, they probably stretch this to 6 games.


Wednesday, April 4, 2012

MLB predictions

Aside from a couple games over in Japan last week, and the opening game in North America last night, today is the opener for most teams, so seems like a good time for my predictions

AL East:
1) Yankees
2) Sox
3) Blue Jays
4) Rays
5) Orioles
Yankees are the Yankees, their old but they'll be fine.  Sox have a new manager, GM, but are Yankees light and want to rebound from last year's 3rd place finish.  They'll be without a closer as they traded their closer last year to Philadelphia, and the one they traded for Andrew Bailey is out until at least July.  Blue Jays and Rays could be flip flopped, both are young, both could surprise and challenge for the playoffs, but both play in the wrong division.  The Orioles are a shoe-in for last.

AL Central:
1) Tigers
2) Indiana
3) Royals
4) Twins
5) White Sox
Tigers won the division in a landslide last year as they were the only team that finished at or above .500 last year, and they just got better with the addition of Prince Fielder.  Since going into the 2010 All Star game 15-1, Ubaldo Jiminez is a pedestrian 14-20 since and in order to catch the Tigers, Jiminez needs to get back to his first half form from 2010.  Last place finishes and high draft picks seem to have paid off the Royals with the likes of Eric Hosmer and Alex Gordan in the big leagues.  Season ending injury to closer Joakim Soria will hurt.  Twins got bit by the injury bug last year, and if they can stay healthy they may pass the Royals.  White Sox are rebuilding, but can still finish as high as 2nd just because 2-5 are so jumbled.

AL West:
1) Angels
2) Rangers
3) Mariners
4) A's
Angels added C.J. Wilson from Texas and Albert Pujols from St. Louis, while Texas replaces Wilson with Japanese import Yu Darvish.  Both the Mariners and A's will be horrible offensive teams; Mariners made better moves over the winter so they get the higher spot.  This will be the final year with only 4 teams in the AL West as the Houston Astros move from the NL Central to the AL West next year

NL East:
1) Phillies
2) Nats
3) Braves
4) Marlins
5) Mets
Phillies have to survive until June when they'll get their big hitters Ryan Howard and Chase Utley back in the lineup.  Nats phenom Bryce Harper should be in the major leagues sometime around June 10, if the Nats can hang around until then they'll have a great team.  Stephen Strasburg and Gio Gonzales the 2 ace pitchers are 22 and 24 respectively and Harper is 21, they'll be good for a while with Harper and Strasburg anchoring the team.  This is the final year for Chipper Jones, who hopes he has a better October then last year; Braves were up 11.5 on August 30 and missed the playoffs.  The Marlins have a new name, new park and new faces, but in order to even be successful they have to have Josh Johnson pitch a whole season which hasn't happened in 4 years.  Mets are still recovering from Bernie Madoff, don't have enough to challenge with the other 4.

NL Central:
1) Brewers
2) Reds
3) Cardinals
4) Pirates
5) Cubs
6) Astros
The Brewers don't have a great bullpen, but they have a great offense and a pretty good rotation.  I think that's enough to get them past the Reds.  Reds have a terrible bullpen, ok rotation, but great offense, how will they handle expectations?  Cardinals are the reigning World Series Champs, but will be hard pressed to get back there without Pujols.  Pirates haven't had a winning season since 1993, that should change this year, but still not enough to compete.  Theo Epstein, new president of the Cubs will have a tough year, that team needs a complete makeover.  They were able to get rid of Carlos Zambrano, but they still have a couple other bad contracts to get rid of.  The Astros are awful and will be shocking if they didn't get to 100 losses.

NL West:
1) Giants
2) D'Backs
3) Rockies
4) Dodgers
5) Padres
If the Giants can actually score some runs with Tim Lincecum on the mount this year, they should win the division with that great rotation.  D'Backs were the division winners last year, but came as a surprise, not sold on them this year.  Troy Tulowitski and Carlos Gonzales are great players for the Rockies, but they need some pitching to win which they don't have much of this year.  Magic Johnson just purchased the Dodgers, so hopefully he can turn them around.  Matt Kemp needs to compete for a triple crown to give them a chance.  Padres may not have a player hit 20 home runs this year and traded away their best player

Wildcards:
Red Sox and Rangers in the AL, D'Backs and Reds in the NL. Red Sox and D'Backs get eliminated in that Wildcard series.

Division series:
AL: Yankees over Rangers and Angels over Tigers
NL: Phillies over Giants and Reds over Brewers

Championship series:
AL: Angels over Yankees
NL: Phillies over Reds

World Series:
Angels over Phillies in 6 games.

Max answer's PTI questions

PTI is a show on ESPN usually involving Tony Kornheiser and Mike Wilbon who debate the day's sports and entertainment headlines.  I'll pretend the question's are aimed at me.

The First Word:

1) Why did Kentucky win?
They won, because they were better, had better players, and made less mistakes then Kansas did.  I can't count the number of times Kansas missed layups.  Even though UK shot less than 27% in the 2nd half (26.9%), they were up 14 at half and held Kansas at bay.  There were 2 key plays in the game:
1) Kansas had trimmed an 18 point deficit down to 14 at halftime.  They scored first to begin the 2nd, forced a UK missed shot, had a run out on the subsequent rebound and missed a dunk that would have gotten it to 10.
2) Down 5 with 1:37 to go, Travis Relaford went for a steal, missed and got called for a reach-in foul.  Anthony Davis made 1 of 2 free throws, and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist blocked Tyshawn Taylor's layup at the other end and that was that.  Kansas made it a competitive game after trailing by double digits most of the game, but the missed layups really hurt them, and was the main reason why they lost.

2) What's next for Calipari?
A very good question.  Now that he's got Kentucky their first title since 1998, any time they don't win a championship will be a failure.  Tubby Smith succeeded Rick Pitino at Kentucky, won the 98 title his first year, never back it back to the final 4 after that, and the UK fans ran him out of town.  Every stop in college under Calipari has been a success: got UMass to #1 in the country and the 1996 final 4; and got Memphis to the 2008 championship game.  However, he had a brief career in the NBA with the Nets where he had a disasterous 72-112 record in 2 and a quater seasons.  With as many as 4 people leaving school (Davis, Kidd-Gilchrist, Doron Lamb and Terrance Jones) with a possibility of a 5th (Marquis Teague), he'd have to do a serious effort to reload.  With John Wall already with the Washington Wizards (played for Calipari in 10 at Kentucky), if the Wizards win the lottery and draft Davis they would have two Calipari players on the roster, and with an interem coach he could bolt back to the NBA like Pete Carroll bolted back to the NFL after winning a championship at USC after having a medicore career in 2+ seasons with New England.  Since the Wizards have an interem coach, Calipari would draw interest, but I think he enjoys his time in college, and the recruiting trail is next for him.

3) Best big man since Duncan?
Yes.  There haven't even been that many other true "big" man to come through college since Duncan anyways.  Kevin Love at UCLA and Joakim Noah at Florida would be the only ones in the running with Davis anyhow. 

4) RG3 refuses to work out with Colts?
Well, when was this "workout" supposed to be anyways, because he was in Denver at the women's final four?  It's non news worthy, the Colts have their sights set on Andrew Luck, and I think Robert Griffin wants to go to Washington more anyways; the offensive system works better for him then in Indianapolis anyways.

Headlines:

1) Will Tiger win the Masters?
I can never get into a golf tournament, even the Masters even on Sundays, even if it's close.  Tiger won his last tournament, and plays well at Augusta, but you have better odds picking the field then picking 1 player, especially when the field has caught up to Tiger and has won the last 13 majors.  I'd look for Angel Cabrera, Phil Mickelson, Adam Scott or Rory McIlroy to challenge Tiger for the green jacket on Sunday

2) What's at stake for Griner?
Nothing, because she's a junior, so she'll be back next year along with the rest of the key contributors off of that team.  Women's basketball isn't like men's basketball, most of these players stick around for all 4 years, only player I can ever remember leaving early was Candace Parker of Tennessee, and Griner has already said she'll be back for her senior year.  Anyway, the team only has 3 seniors and 2 of them don't even play that much, so they have the ingredients ready to get back here next season.  There's more pressure on Baylor as a team because basketball is a team sport: 39-0 heading in, and with a win would be the first team in basketball history to finish a season 40-0.  They would be the 7th women's team to finish undefeated, but the highest previous total was 39-0.  Indiana, the last men's team to finish undefeated, was 37-0.  With teams only being allowed to play a maximum of 31 or 32 regular season games, it'd be pretty difficult to pass 40-0.  Notre Dame was just in the championship game last year and Baylor couldn't even get to the final 4, so if ND starts out hot, that 39-0 record could be all for nothing.  Note Baylor ended up pulling away the final 10 minutes to win 80-61; a lot closer then the score indicated

3) Claiborne's score leaked?
Who cares that Morris Claiborne the LSU CB scored a 4 on the wonderlic test?  I don't even know what this test is.

Word:

1) __________ to give Votto Big Extension
Costly.  The Reds own their own TV station (FS Ohio), but unlike other teams that own their own TV stations (Nationals, Orioles, Indians, Red Sox, Yankees, Mets), the Reds don't get as much profit as those previous 3 do.  With Prince Fielder and Albert Pujols both gone from divisional rivals and out of the division, the Reds can compete for the next couple years.  However, putting 22.5 million for 10 years to 1 player with not a high payroll team can cost them.  Joey Votto is a great player, now probably the 2nd best offensive player in the division, but a 10 year extension for $225 million is big.  Brandon Phillips, a key cog for the offense is probably gone after this season because the team will have no money to pay him.  The Reds organization put all their eggs in 1 basket, I hope it works out for them and he doesn't get hurt like Joe Maeur did for the Twins.

2) Seahawks new uniforms are ______________________
Oregonian.  Nike unveilved new uniforms for all 32 NFL teams.  Nike is also in charged of handling the Oregon Duck uniforms, I don't think they've had the same pant/shirt combination in the last 3 seasons.

3) The Fray's national anthem was _____________
Not neccessary.  I like a couple of The Fray's songs, but can people just sing the anthem and get on with the game?

4) Jets on "Hard Knocks" would be ________________
Media driven.  They've already been on once.  Get another team, but put a camera on linebacker Bart Scott though.

Big Finish:

1) 5 game suspension?
I'll take it.  Ubaldo Jiminez hit his old teammate Troy Tulowitzski in the back over the weekend.  5 game for a pitcher is 1 start, not a big deal.

2) Back on the rise?
Los Angeles Clippers are on a 6 game winning streak, their best in 20 years.  Their game against the Lakers tomorrow will go a long way to deciding who wins the Pacific division and avoids the Thunder in the second round (division winner would finish 3rd, second would finish either 4th or 5th and would play West #1 Oklahoma City in second round).  Clippers currently trail by a game and a half and have a game in hand

3) Mood in Bulls Corner (Wilbon is a bulls fan)?
Tired, this is what happens when you play the equivlant of two college seasons in 1 season (66 games in about 125 days).  Their still 2.5 up on Miami in the East, 9 up on Indiana in their division and have already clinched a playoff spot.  Once Rose gets back for the playoffs, they'll be fine.

4) 4,000 fewer seats?
That means the Redskins have 4,000 less tickets to give away this year if they collapse down the stretch.

5) Will Yanks win this year?
6 times Kentucky has won a championship, the Yankees have won the World Series the following October.  I say it ends this year, the AL is too strong, and the AL representative has lost in 4 of the last 6 World Series