Finally, a Knicks post. We suck. Curses! (1 of 3)

The Knicks are a fucking joke. But, we will be FINE. We are the Knickerbockers after all; Clyde will get more swishing and dishing, less saulking and faulking. Grandpa Walsh (not really, but I have had dreams about this) and D'Antoni (moustache, amazing, but not as good as Alon's) will right the ship, I have decided. Now, the entire team needs to be overhauled in the wake of the complete MESS that Isiah left us with. Just quickly, if any team ever gives Thomas a front office position ever again, I will just, I mean, wtf, he could not have been worse at his job. Funny how quickly the Larry Brown debachle has been forgotten. But, fk Isiah, he is the worst thing ever, die, die, die, kill yourself, I hate you, ok enough. I'm fine. Moving on, the current roster construction is absolutely atrocious. There is basically nothing good about it. I love the Knicks, but I absolutely hate, hate, hate this team. So, for the primary, and surely one of many, Knicks posts here at Bloodsports, I will go very in depth into many aspects of the team. Part one will be strictly talking about D'Antoni and Walsh. Part two, which will actually be written (you taking notes Hiro?), will be a breakdown of each player on the roster in great capacity. You need to either be 1: very into the Knicks or 2: very into basketball if you have any hope of enjoying this. So, with that disclaimer, More... yourself as you see fit.
More...

Ok, Walsh (Donald). Donnie was the best possible guy available to reconstruct our club, period. I'm so happy we got him, and he has proved time and time again that he understands what it takes to fix a roster. We have the highest payroll in the league to go with one of the-if not the-worst roster in the league. It is truly a monumental undertaking to turn this team around into a competitive team in the very near future, as Knicks fans and ownership are demanding. It remains to be seen how successful Walsh will be, but so far, so good. I will get more into the GMish aspects and what to do with each player in my next post.

Ok, Mike D'Antoni. I remember when we hired him this past summer hearing the collective groans amongst Knicks fans as they yearned for Marc Jackson. I was absolutely appalled that Knicks fans were not rejoicing at the D'Antoni hire as much as I was. Jackson would have been an absolute horrific fit for this club. He would have been a first year coach with: everything to prove, a horrible team, and no clear direction as to where he would want the roster to go. Also, with the demanding media and added scrutiny he would be placed under in New York to go with the fact that we will suck for at least the next two years, Jackson would have crumbled and likely ran out of town. He would have just been a mess, there is no question at all in my mind to this and it is fact. And that would also mean the breakup his on air trio with Van Gundy and Breen which would have represented a nightmare scenario for the NBA and fans alike.

Another thing that I kept hearing after the D'Antoni hire was the hope that we would wait and see if we could get Tom Thibideau, Celtics defensive guru and assistant coach, instead. I was very irritated by this, as well. First of all, it would have been too great a risk to wait; we were capable of signing D'Antoni and to hold out for Thibodeau with no indication whatsoever as to what Tom would want to petod faulk seems asenine to me. He was still with the Celts and unable to have any sort of negotiations with other teams. The fervor for Thibodeau to be the Knicks head coach was pure speculation and yet was a resounding force amongst Knicks fans who lamented the D'Antoni hire. That bothered me to no end. Another thing about the Thibodeau hire, he would have in my opinion been a much worse hire than D'Antoni even if he was available. We will be horrible this year, and Thibodeau would have been preaching 48 minutes of defensive intensity to no end. On losing teams with no playoff aspirations this has the potential to cause a divide between players and coach. Our players would have hated to bust their asses game in and game out on defense for such a demanding coach (curry, zrand, crawford..defense..lets be serious) when we would be getting routinely destroyed and in the doldrums of the Eastern Conference anyway. Thibodeau obviously has a great defensive basketball mind and could be a great head coach in this league, but he would not have thrived in New York. Not now and not with this roster.

D'Antoni, on the other hand, will let our guys run around and shoot and teach his elaborate offensive system and they will at least be happy this year while they suck and FUN TO WATCH (thank GOD, finally). Further, in D'Antoni's shooter-happy system it will help prop up the values of our players so we can actually get rid of their massive contracts. Ideally, anyway. And also, players across the league actually WANT to play under him. The vast majority of players like offense more than defense and they like when the coach doesn't make them play defense. D'Antoni and the ability to play in his system will be a great piece of leverage over future free agents.

Also, I love the way I can generalize the terms "their massive contracts" and "players" for the Knicks. In that, everyone on our team, basically, sucks and are signed to a ridiculous and largely unmovable deals. Goddammit Knicks, what has happened. Mid-posting this, and just as my mind is spinning about the Knicks, I really cannot believe how out of control things have gotten for the orange and blue. The past few seasons have been absolutely painful to watch, and I am really getting so tired of it. But anyway, back on track, I really like the D'Antoni hire.

I feel like D'Antoni was the best possible coach to come in here. Again, yes defense wins championships and D'Antoni does not care for this aspect of the game, but we are LIGHTYEARS away from contention. BABY STEPS, Knicks fans. Also, D'Antoni was, if I'm not mistaken, right on the cusp of titledom for the Suns (the Western Conference Suns) for several years. Put those Suns teams in the Eastern Conference and they are in the finals three years straight. He will bring a fun style of basketball to the Garden which will make the players more excited to play and give the fans more joy out of watching which is desperately needed. The system that he runs will also make Walsh's job easier. There are certain types of players who fit and others who do not. We can pinpoint the spare parts on our current roster (unfortunately, that means mostly everyone) and also target specific types of players as we prepare up for the Summer of Lebron. D'Antoni knows which players will excel under him and which will not. In 2 or 3 years down the road, we will assess D'Antoni, and Walsh for that matter, in a different light with higher expectations, as our roster continues to change and get better - I hope. But for the time being and the immediate future, I do not understand why any Knicks fans are unhappy with this guy at our helm. ESPECIALLY after the Isiah and Brown eras.

I realize I didn't really get into WHY I like D'Antoni and that right there (what you just read) was more of an incoherent rambling/rant. Ok, Walsh (me, this time). I need to calm down right now. It's very hard writing about teams you follow so closely without going overly nuts/insane and diverting into a million tangents. Ok, we're fine again. Onward. D'Antoni brings an actual system to our team (offensive only) and will actually coach instead of sit on the bench for 48 minutes with pursed lips while making stupid faces (Isiah..ugh). He requires his players to run up and down the floor. The pick and roll is the bread and butter of his offensive schemes, as Nash and Amare ran it to perfection in his time at Phoenix. There are a plethora of options to choose from on every single offensive possession and his system, while it seems like players just sprint up and down the floor and shoot, is really very in depth. The point guard position is absolutely essential to his entire system and its motor. The pg has to assess and correctly analyze how the defense is reacting and run the correct offensive scheme accordingly, as Nash did to perfection in Phoenix. D'Antoni wants quick shots on offense and for the ball to essentially never stop moving. Defensively, he doesn't really give a faulk. He pressures sometimes and just runs a straight man hoping that he will lure the opposing team into his style of up and down basketball. If he induces the other teams into playing his style of basketball, his controlled chaos will win out over pure chaos 120-110. Lu, lu. D'Antoni is an excellent player evaluator as he came up as a scout before he dabbled in head coaching. He knows what he wants and needs in a player, and is very capable, as he has shown in Phoenix, of building a team which can succeed under his style of basketball.

Last year, under Thomas, it is under appreciated by the fans as to how horrible Isiah was at coaching. He basically spent more time picking out what tie he would wear with his suit than coming up with a game plan on a nightly basis. Basically, as the head coach, did not coach at all. There were times, as reported this off season by Knick players, where Isiah would tell guys in the huddle to just give the ball to Jamal and that was it. JOKE! D'Antoni has a system which is entirely offensively inclined and is, in my estimation, the best thing for the Knicks at this time. It is an incentive for players to get into shape (Q now with less body fat) as they have the potential to turn in a career year if they can run and log the minutes effectively. Further, even though D'Antoni does not really coach or care for defense, the Suns did get very deep into the playoffs and were a very, very good team in the West under him. There is no reason why he cannot do the same thing with us, given time, and with or without any defense. I hope he will be here for a while and I hope that we let him and Walsh run their course on our basketball team as I believe they will put it together.

Ok, so I love D'Antoni and Walsh, that felt good to get off my chest. This is sort of a therapeutic exercise venting about all this Knicks madness, I am a joke, we are fine, maybe, lets go right now. I was thinking of doing a sort of mock GM thing like we need to trade x, y, and z (or in the Knicks' case more like a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h,i,j, and k...eoh). But instead, I will look at this more in my next post. Stay tuned.

Been drinking the McFadden juice and I am blackout right now..

Darren McFadden will be an absolute monster beast this year. I have decided. APeterson's 2007 rookie year was, obviously, insane. I think McFadden has every bit and more of an opportunity to at least put up AP numbers in his own rookie campaign. First of all, for fantasy, I am absolutely drafting this kid in every league I am in. He is being slept on way too much, fantasy pundits are obsessing over like Kevin Smith, Mendenhall, and Jonathan Stewart and their values when BY FAR the best rookie back will be in silver and black. 4th roundish is just way too late for him, he is the guy I think who will be on many championship rosters this season much like AP last year. There is no real mention of McFadden and the ridiculously favorable situation he is being put into on Oakland this year. Fantasy aside and entering real life, McFadden is serious. He put up 2000 total yards last year at Arkansas (SEC teams have bad defense right? eoh) and that was WITH Felix Jones putting up about 1300 total yards. If McFadden was the exclusive back and absorbed some of the Felix yards, he would maybe have had one of the greatest single seasons for a running back of all time. Yes, that is fact, 3000 yards for a single season at college is Barry Sanders etc. territory. McFadden is a similar talent to AP, drafted very high in the NFL draft, and in a great position to succeed this year in Oaktown.
More...

First of all, McFadden. He is big, fast, and destructive. He can run inside the tackles, hit the corners with insane speed, and lower his shoulder when he needs to. He is a great receiving back and he can throw it like LT (check youtube). He makes everyone else in the game look like they are moving in slow motion, exactly what happened when AP would breakthrough the line last season. He easily outruns corners and safeties and will have more than his fair share of 50+ yard runs. There is a reason why he was the first back taken this year and a reason why he was drafted fourth overall. He REALLY looks identical to AP, except without any real injury risk, to me. By seasons end, I think he will be a top 10 back in the NFL, if not top 5.

Last season, Oakland sucked. BUT, they were a phenomenal running team averaging 130 yards per game good for 6th in the NFL. You have to do a double take on that. Yes, the Raiders sucked last year, and yes their passing game was absolutely a joke, but they still managed to be the sixth best rushing team in the league! They were 6th in the league AND they did that with Justin Fargas and whichever other random/bad running faulks they were playing. Adrian Peterson entered last season in a clearly defined time share with Chester Taylor. The Vikes stuck to this plan begrudgingly as the season wore on to their detriment. Taylor was very productive but Peterson was simply dominating; AP's carries suffered nonetheless. In Fargas, McFadden will not have this same problem. Fargas is perennially injured and has been a long tenured Raider whose front office has made it abundantly clear through off season moves (LaMont Jordan, and again with Darren himself) that Fargas will never be their guy. Once McFadden shows what he can do on the field, I have no doubt the Raiders will ride him harder than a $3 thai hooker all season.

To go with the already efficient running attack that the Raiders owned last season, they have made upgrades elsewhere on offense that will benefit McFadden. JaMarcfat at qb is actually, despite being a fat man, a very mobile quarterback who is comfortable out of the pocket. McFadden has great receiving ability and will be relied upon on third down to be there as the check down. More time on the field, ok Darren. Their wide receiving corps is very questionable with unknown commodity Javon Walker et al but they can't really be worse than they were last year. JaMarcus' mobility and also rocketlauncher (understatement) of an arm will prevent defenses stacking the box and totally focusing their game plan on McFadden, maybe, for a little bit at least.

Minny, by contrast, did absolutely nothing but run in 2007. Tavaris was incredibly bad and their passing game was an actual mockery at 28th in the NFL. They had to run. It is conceivable that Oakland will have quite a poor passing game as well. 2007 defense vs. Minny, opposing teams focused their defensive schemes entirely against AP and Minny's run game. Irrelevant, he was still unstoppable. I believe that if Oakland's passing game is equally inept as the 2007 Vikings, defenses will do the same exact thing to McFadden this season. And it will be every bit as unsuccessful and McFadden will tear new assholes on a weekly basis.

I could not love McFadden more right now. He's so exciting to watch and has the ability to run for 6 every time he touches the ball, again, much like AP. The comparison's are stark and plentiful which causes me to wonder why they have not been analyzed and discussed more in the media. McFadden is not getting nearly enough attention for the game changing ability he has, probably because he is on the suck Oakland Raiders, but I am fine with that, especially for fantasy purposes.

Risk vs. Reward

This past weekend there was a writer's convention in northern California. Therewillbesports writers Walsh, Treater and myself indulged in debauchery of all sorts including hours upon hours of sports bickering (and Treater punching Walsh in the face only semi by accident and semi hard... seen above).

Several football mock drafts were completed, comtreated and comfaulked. In general, Peter (Treater) and I like and dislike the same players at all positions and Walsh, in last.fm terms, has high compatibility, but not quite super...

However all that jibba-jabba is besides the point. There was one, yes just one, glaring difference in our opinions and I found myself fighting a never ending battle. Where do you take your QB? The most crucial piece of information that you need to know as the opinionated reader is the standard CBS scoring system which is: 6 points for all touchdowns (rushing, receiving, throwing), 1 point for every 25 passing yards and 1 point for every 10 rushing or receiving yards. An interception is -2 and a fumble lost is -2 as well. As far as the roster positions: 1 QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, 1TE, 1 RB/WR, 1 K, 1 DEF and 5 bench spots.
More...

Between last football season and this current baseball season I've learned a valuable fantasy lesson. The major mistake made in both leagues (football shared with Peter and baseball shared with Walsh) was taking the high risk / high reward guy at the positions that are thin, a.k.a. the positions that are impossible to fix without trade... I guess I gotta explain myself:

There are 16 teams in the National League. In our NL-only fantasy league there are 12 teams and each team starts two catchers (put your calculator away, I got your back) and that adds up to a total of 24 starting catchers. SO... that means that eight non-starting catchers will be taken by teams, because obviously they will not just keep an empty in that roster spot, and that also means that as far as free agents or the waiver wire is concerned, there ain't nothin' but a ghost town.

If you read my fantasy post part one then you know that we ended up with Carlos Ruiz - bust and Ronny Paulino - bust. Yes, we are still winning our league and yes we are going to win our league, but if we didn't make some ridiculously phenomenal pickups (which Walsh just wrote about below this post) that would not be the story.

Sure some people lucked out in their NL-onlys (IT WASN'T LUCK YOU FOOL! I KNEW HE WAS GOING TO BE AMAZING LBAHBLHALBHALHBLAH) with Soto and Doumit, but what about the humans that ended up with, other than Ruiz and Paulino, Towles, Estrada, Bard, Barrett, Ross, Iannetta or Snyder... I'll tell you whats happening with them. They're probably NOT in first in ALL FIVE PITCHING CATEGORIES like we are, and they're almost definitely not winning their leagues.

Starting any of those guys I just mentioned is an empty in terms of production and most of them even hurt your team with extremely low batting averages versus the top guys taken like R. Martin (.295, 10hr, 47rbi, 10sb), B. McCann (.302, 18hr, 56rbi, 2sb), B. Molina (.279, 6hr, 56rbi) or Y. Molina (.306, 4hr, 33rbi)...Why so serious?...

In last years co-owned FF team (Peter and myself) a similar thing happened. We were busy worrying about every other position then tight-end when a TE run happened right before our eyes. Our favorite sleeper (probably mostly because of Madden and media-hype) was Vernon Davis going in, but we missed out on him so we took Alge Dumpler. Well eventually later in the season when someone dropped Vernon we quickly picked him up and guess what, they were both the worst things ever! Yay! Booooooooo....Jason Witten last year is the Geovany Soto of this year. Remember though, it is extremely difficult to pinpoint these ridiculous statistical explosions...

Some other TE sleeperfails before last season included Greg Olsen (391 yds, 2 tds, finished 20th in fantasy points), Ben Watson (389 yds, 6 tds, 13th), Randy McMichael (429 yds, 3 tds, 16th) and Zach Miller (444 yds, 3 tds, 17th). By the way, Vernon Davis finished 15th and Alge finished 14th. In a twelve team league you're really not looking to draft a tight-end that will finish outside of the top.... TWELVE?!?!?! At the bare minimum I suppose.

Fixing your tight-end s***-storm will also require you to give up a lot because people realize when they're holding on tight (pun absolutely intended) to a guy like Tony G., that without him they'd have nothing in the roster spot which makes his value that much higher. Not to mention however many weeks you did suffer with a -10 to -15 point differential between you and your opponent in the tight-end spot week to week to Rickie Weeks.

It's those reasons exactly that, despite loving guys like the now New Orleans Saint Jeremy Shockey or potentially the next Colston- Dustin Keller, that I refuse to not have a top end tight-end. For the "reverse" reasons I feel that quarterback is a position where risks are worthy. There are 32 starting QBs to begin a season and in a twelve team league probably ten total quarterbacks are taken by the tenth round, when at that point I can take a low risk on two guys that I'm stoked about with extremely high upside such as Aaron Rodgers and Matt Leinart, while using my "extra" early pick to assist domination of another position. If my favorite QB sleeper works out then great, everything went according to plan and it's a very high chance that I have a substantial advantage in my top-end running back or WR against the other teams' favorite sleeper at the same position. If my fav. sleeper doesn't work out well then check the waivers or that other you guy you drafted... Check it.

Last year let's say someone goes Peyton (unquestionably the first QB taken) and Vernon Davis (or any of the other guys except Witten) which equals a total of 409 points in CBS versus someone who instead goes Gates or Tony G. (unquestionably the first two TEs taken) and either Romo (7th QB taken), Big Ben (13th), D. Anderson (undrafted), M. Hasselbeck (10th), Favre (16th) or Warner who was also pretty much not drafted in any leagues and my team wins. So right away there is two great options that weren't even drafted, not to mention other serviceable ones that were and are going to be available on waivers just because of depth and the inevitable injuries at the position.

Add on to the fact that Peyton was a unanimous first round pick in fantasy last year and Vernon, who went the highest of all the tight-end busts, was taken usually in the 7th round. That player difference creates a much, much bigger separation between "my" team and the evil combination of Peyton, Peter and Walsh. Plug-in ALL QBs except for the one out lier Tom Brady and you get the same results.

So take your Brady while I take Addai, I'll take my K. Winslow while you're sleeping on Rudi Johnson, Jon Stewart, LenWhale or Forte, and while you're taking your stud kicker, defense, or despicable backup player I will settle with my super high upside and not too high risk combination of A. Rodg and Leinart and I will win.

Fact or fiction?

WELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL I'm gonna have to go with fact here Tony...

We treat fantasy too!!! (part ii of ii)

Alon has been a little bitch recently and has not wanted to finish our nl-only team report. But I wanted to read it, and since he isn't writing it, I will, and then read it after I'm done. We..are..fine. So after the draft we liked the team a bit but clearly if we didn't make genius pickups like we did we would not be destroying the league as we currently are. Obviously guys like Utley, Bay, Volquez and such humans have been owning for us, but the pickups we made easily have caused us to be coasting for months. We made one trade, eoheoh, pickups, standings, okok. [that is Ryan Dempster who will soon be featured]
More...

Before May 1, we pickup the following players of note:
John Rauch, Jorge Cantu, Ryan Dempster

We dropped Fuentes for Rauch because going into the season it looked like Corpas had more of a stranglehold on the closer job than Chad Cordero who neither of us liked much. Fuentes has some saves, but Rauch has been a genius for us all season after Cordero got hurt like a week after we grabbed Rauch. He has 17 saves and a 2.98 era 1.02 whip and 44 ks in 48 ip. That's bad. Between him, Brian Wilson and Gregg we have been owning saves all year. Looking at Jorge Castillo at 3b going into the season for the fish, we liked Cantu to play a bit and maybe win the job outright. It looked like Cantu might start after a torrid spring and we thought he could be a decent deep sleeper this year. We were wrong, woohoowoohoo. Castillo got cut or something stupid and is now on the Giants, he sucks. Cantu can't play third for his life, but fantasy doesn't count fielding categories so f you. He has been mashing and batting in the middle of their order all season and has treated us to 59 r 18hr 58 rbi .291. Dempster was one of like 8 free agents after the draft who were available and with a job. He sucked last year as a closer and hasn't really had a good year starting since 2000. He's been bad this year. Bad players make the All-star team right? Somehow he is amazing; some luck in this pick but we did pick him up after he made just one start. He has been fkn amazing on the Cubbies this year and has been an anchor to our staff with a 3.05 era 1.11 whip 111k and 11 wins in 134 ip. Our staff with Volquez and Dempster breaking out to go with Haren, Oswalt who sucks hip abductor strain die kill myself, and Webb is jokingly/hysterically good.

May 10: pickup Fred Jewis for Brian Bixler
Fred has been phenomenal for us since we got him. We picked him up when he started to emerge as the Giants' starting LF, even though they bench him against lefties sometimes, he's been hitting lead off for them basically all year. He's hitting .274 with 61 runs 6 dongs 27 rbi and 17 sb. Picking up 61 runs and 17 steals off waivers in nl only is easy/bad. Ok Fred.

June 1: pickup Cody Ross for Dicksucker Hill
As May wrapped up, Ross hit 10 dingers in the month. He either started to roid (5'9" joke) or got a ridiculously hot girlfriend who serviced him before every game or something because a 10 dinger month from him was a joke. We were sort of streaming our 2nd util spot week to week and it was Ross' turn. He has started at our 2nd util ever since and has hit 6 dongs and 29 rbis for us since. He doesn't hit for great average nor does he get many runs batting 6th or 7th or wherever in the lineup but he treats some dongs and rbis for us and has been very good as our last hitter.

June 8: pickup Mike Gonzalez for Dameatfaulkerimthefattestplayerever Young
We picked up Gonzalez 10 days before his first appearance (save, eoh). We obviously didn't need another closer but our starters were all so good we had bench spots that we didn't really need to use for immediate help. Gonzalez has only 4 saves to date but we traded him soon.

June 22: claim Ubaldo Jimenez for Max Scherzer
Scherzer was starting for us probably a bit too long but he was ok in middle relief and got us some Ks so faulk you. Jimenez was streaky all year but he started to put it together in June and we felt he was worth a claim for us as we could've used another starter to replace the generally worthless Scherzer. Jimenez has K potency and has been really good for us since we grabbed him. He's got 4 quality starts in 4 tries in July and has been a skinny genius Dominican for us in our 9th pitching spot.

June 25: claim Chris Young (sd) for Charlie Morton
The guy who owned Young clearly could not afford to have one of his two valuable bench spots (only 2 bench spots in this league) taken up by him anymore. But we don't really use our bench because our team is so FKN good. We had like 8th waiver position after we just used our first claim of the year on schUbaldong though and Young didn't even have a projection as to when he would be back at this time so nobody else claimed him. Great for us. He's been sitting on our bench waiting for the coaches to put him in. He's tall and will never pitch to King Albert again, but you know what, we're FINE with that. He looks like he will be back by August and he will be at full strength to be a literal Princeton genius for us and ultimately force Ubaldo to the bench. Dunno if we'll try and trade Ubaldo as he is clearly startable in our format but we'll see. Having an extra pitcher to slide in for 2 start weeks or if guy gets hurt is a great luxury.

July 3: TRADEEEE yay Mike Gonzalez and Michael Barrett for Yadier Molina
This trade..is..a..joke. We have been getting absolutely 0 production out of Barrett and Ruiz all year. Ruiz is ok as a second catcher in nl only but as a first with Barrett is a mockery. Yadier does nothing but hit .300, which few others in the nl do. Batting average was our worst category by far so this trade fit our team perfectly. Gonzalez sucks and Barrett has never been the same since CZambrano owned him in the dugout. Highway robbery on this deal for us.

July 8: pickup KazMat for Lastings Milledge
Dunno why someone dropped Kaz the day before he came back from a 3ish week absence, but we're in a public league so some people are DUMBDUMBS. We haven't started him over Ross though because we need the hr / rbi more than the sb / r but we probably will soon because kaz is just better. Ross will join ubaldo on our bench soon and we might try and make another deal, but maybe not, because we really don't need to!

Our team is as follows: Yadier, Ruiz, Cantu, Utley, Feliz, Tejada, Bay, Bourn, Cameron, Hawpe, Lewis, CoJackson, Ross // Dempster, Haren, Webb, Oswalt, Volquez, Jimenez, Rauch, Wilson, Gregg with Kazuo and CYoung on our bench. Joke. Joke. Joke.

We have 50 of 50 pitching points. Our team era is 3.19, 2nd place is at 4.02. That's close, we're bad at era. We are up 21 Ks, kinda actually close, but our staff is genius and getting CYoung back, we will finish the season 1st in this cat. We're up 8 saves to 2nd and 25 to 3rd, that's bad, we're bad at saves. We're up 9 wins to 2nd place, our staff is bad though so we probably won't win this cat. Eoh, I'm concerned. Our whip is 1.22 while second at 1.35. Our staff is bad. 50/50 pitching in any format is ridiculous and even that much more so in nl only.

We have 31 of 50 hitting points. Middling hitting, owning pitching. We are in good shape to move up in some hitting cats, it isn't really worth noting, as the league is already over and we will win money.

I am convinced now that this exercise serves 0 utility. The only unique thing we did entering the season was draft starters early, which worked out, but without the garbage Dumpster pickup and Volquez's retarded year we would not be owning to such a degree. Again, 0 utility, but me and Alon have been up by at about 10 points since like for a long time and we wanted to treatise our team and roster moves and such. So if you hate it, I hate you, and you just wasted a couple minutes of your life. Sorry!

What's not to Kevin?

I feel like in talking about the draft and such things with friends etc. Kevin Love is constantly being overlooked and underestimated. I'm not going to go into the Mayo for Love deal or anything of this sort but I do feel like Love can/will flourish in Minny given their current roster construction. I think that this kid is going to be a really special player. While I can't see Beastley not winning ROY honors this year, I do think Love will have a standout rookie campaign. I'm going to get into Love's game and how good I think he will be, which is very.
More...

Offense: I think that Love will be (not now, but soon) a 20/10 guy in the NBA. Offensively, his game is very unique for guys his size and one that I find it difficult to draw comparisons to. He looks a bit like a combination of Brad Miller and Carlos Boozer to me, sort of, I don't know, maybe, whatever. At 6'10", he will slide into the front court with Al Jefferson this season for Minny where he will have the benefit of being the second option down low and thus gaining the attention of the opposing teams weaker defender. He has very good range for a guy his size; he can consistently knock down a mid-range jumper. At his size, 4s and 5s will have difficulty guarding him as he faces up to the basket from 18+ feet where he is very comfortable. His post up game is also pretty good, surely he will improve it, so he can be a similar threat with his back to the basket. Practicing every day with Al Jefferson will be tremendously helpful to Love's offensive game, and most importantly, his post up game. He will log heavy minutes this season for a Minny front court that is pretty underwhelming. Craig Smith is really the only other big guy they have who figures to be in their rotation. I really like his scoring ability and I think that he will average 20 ppg in this league once he gets a year or two under his belt. Offensively, the other thing that really stands out to me, is Love's passing ability. His basketball IQ, as has been touted for a long time, is through the roof. He has tremendous court vision and is great at passing out of the post hitting cutters for lay-ups. When he is facing the basket he is always a threat to shoot, drive, or pass, something that few guys his size can boast. He will get his fair share of dimes for a big guy. He is not athletic and his offensive game is not very exciting. He's a smart kid who knows what his strengths are and offensively, I believe he will grow to be a force.

Defense: Love is pretty vulnerable on the defensive end this year. He showed difficulty at UCLA defending guys his size who were more agile and athletic; in other words, pretty much every power forward in the NBA. At 6'10", he is best suited to play the 4 in the NBA, but with Al Jefferson also at 6'10" he might be forced to play center a bit. Jefferson was a below average defender at the 5 last season for Minny and coupled with Love down low, they will have a pretty bad front court defense when these two are on the floor together. Love will probably never average 1+ steal or block per game but I do believe that he will be an average defender as he progresses. He has size, and although he is not very athletic, his basketball IQ will allow him to make adjustments on the defensive end of the floor that will play to his advantage. He looks like he can put on more muscle/convert body fat to muscle as he hits the weight room harder now in the NBA. He has good toughness and coupled with his size and smarts, I think he will be fine on D. One of his greatest strengths is his ability to rebound the basketball on the defensive end. He will, without a doubt in my mind, average 10+ rebounds per game given starters minutes. His athleticism does not lend itself for him to be a great offensive rebounder, but he actually boxes out his man on D when the ball goes up and he is great at positioning himself to grab the board. He has a nose for the ball like a Ben Wallace or Dennis Rodman and shows a similar willingness to play physically and bang down low to grab the rebound. The other thing that Love does better than probably anyone else in the game even as a rookie is outlet passing. Off of defensive rebounds he never, actually never, brings the ball below his head unless he is being harassed. He pivots out and immediately looks to outlet it to the guards streaking down the sideline. He has an uncanny ability to gun outlet passes to hit his guards in stride to get the fast break going. I have never seen a player with his outlet passing ability, he looks like a QB as he often guns outlet passes off defensive rebs.

I feel like Love has a lot of intangibles, coupled with great skill, that will allow him to flourish in the NBA. His basketball IQ, to me, will allow him to cope for his athletic shortcomings. Of all the rookies this year, besides Gallinari, I am most excited to see the numbers Love puts up. I really liked him in UCLA and I think he is great fit in Minnesota. At 6'10", he has the ability to excel in so many facets of the game that others his size cannot do.

"Dolphins quarterback Josh McCown has decided to quit using chain saws, which should please his team."

If you haven't heard the news, Miami QB Josh McCown cut his finger with a f***ing CHAINSAW last week while enjoying outdoor activities with his brother, fellow gridiron LEGEND and Tampa Bay QB Luke McCown (read more).

I don't quite understand how one manages to come away from a chainsaw accident with only a "cut." I have little experience operating such machinery, but this sounds like quite the accomplishment.

McCown's injury got me thinking about other genius sports injuries that have occurred in the past. Images of Bill Gramatica tearing his ACL during a field goal celebration and Joel Zumaya straining his arm from playing "Symphony of Destruction" on expert in Guitar Hero immediately came to mind, but YES there are more amazing tales.

I did some "research" and found this fantastic article that chronicles some of the best sports injuries of our time: The dumbest injuries in sports.

Some noteworthies from the article: Marty Cordova, Moises Alou (article says "after running over his son" and doesn't say with what, but I read on another site that it was with a bicycle, YES MOISES), John Smoltz, and Wade Boggs.

Reading such stories is always refreshing and makes me happy to know that despite their amazing on-the-field accomplishments, athletes are in reality just dumb-asses like myself (Note: I once ran face first into a brick wall on a fly route, leaving me with a bloody face and a fractured wrist. First thing everyone asked me was whether I held onto the football or not. Sadly, the play was recorded as just another dropped pass on my stat line).

Oh and if you were concerned for Joshua, don't worry. His cut healed just fine and he's ready for training camp.

A treatise on the Pittsburgh Pirates

The Pittsburgh Pirates have been rebuilding every year for as long as I can remember. As the second half gets underway, they are, surprise!, bad, again. They are six games under .500 without the slightest chance of making the playoffs let alone finishing the season with more wins than losses. It really is too bad at how incredibly inept Pirate management has been as this is a great baseball town. The fans have been anxiously waiting to see a competitive team at PNC Park for years now. There is no quick fix for this team, unfortunately, and the future looks very bleak.

This is a small market team - 27th in the league in payroll - and when small market teams are managed poorly and unable to cultivate minor league talent, the results are catastrophic. There is no quick fix for a small market team when they have had many consecutive years of prospect fails: Sean Burnett, John Van Benschoten, Bryan Bullington, and Paul Maholm were the Pirates' 1st round draft picks, all starting pitchers, from years 2000-2003. This represents just a glimpse of the grave problem the Pirates have had in developing talent within. Small market teams that are successful like the Twins, As, and now Rays, are competitive when they are able to bring up several of their prospects to the bigs at the same time. The Marlins come to mind executing this flawlessly with their last world series title. They won with basically lots of homegrown players who peaked at the same time. A small market team like the Pirates as currently situated, with such a thin minor league system, coupled with their weak major league roster, simply cannot compete anytime soon. They must extensively restock and replenish their system in hopes of having several prospects pan out, bring them up, and get some years of production while they are still under arbitration.

The only real bright spot in this organization is their young outfield core which will emerge, hopefully as soon as next year, in Pearce-McClouth-McCutchen. Catcher Ryan Doumit also figures into their plans for the future as he is putting together a monster, and relatively injury-free season. Outside of this, they are an absolute mess. After they blew up their roster in '07, they need to face the hard fact that they need to do it again. Their staff, which seemed on the cusp of breaking through after last season, has regressed horribly (like, really, really bad, and probably to the point of no return). The Pirates have just flat out not produced a top of the rotation pitcher out of their farm system in a really long time. Their starting pitching has been utterly horrible year in and year out, and if a cause of their laughing stock status must be pinpointed, this would be it.
More...

Hitting, what to do, we are bad, etc.

Before I get into the pitching I just want to address two things. 1: their infield is a fkn mockery joke are you serious and 2: if Bay AND (not OR) Nady are in Pirate uniforms after the trade deadline, it would be a serious blow for the future of this club.

Infield: Ok, Adam LaRoche is grossly overpaid for what he does, which is basically strike out, hit a couple solo dongs, and suck. Their middle infield rotation of Luis Rivas/Jack Wilson/Freddy Sanchez/Chris Gomez is ridiculously bad and none can hit; AAA pitching would probably own them and they all belong in AA, I have decided. Sanchez, one time NL batting champion, is batting .226 who in 358 abs has 18 (!!!!!!!) extra base hits, and they have been batting the guy 2nd in their lineup (!!!!!) virtually all season. Bautista is incapable of playing every day at the hot corner, he is just bad. What's worse, the Pirates have no real infield prospects who are close to being ready to contribute. The only infield position they have locked up for the future is 3b with 2008 2nd overall pick Pedro Alverez likely to be a big time player. There is no real solution for their infield. They will not go out and sign a bunch of guys, as they don't spend money, and they don't really have any strong internal solutions. We'll see what they get when (if, ugh) they deal Nady and Bay, as their infield is a glaring problem.

Outfield: Their current outfield of Nady-McClouth-Bay is outstanding and has been a solid, productive aspect of the team this year. But, as a team, they suck and are going nowhere. Nady and Bay are two of their top hitters, but are too old and do not in any way fit into the rebuilding plan the Pirates must once more/continue to undergo. This team absolutely must deal them both. Bay and Nady are in high demand as there are a plethora of teams in contention who could use either of their bats and the Pirates have GOT to deal them both. I cannot stress this enough, clearly. Unfortunately, these are probably the only two hitters (sans Doumit and McClouth - untouchables) who the Pirates would be able to get value (read: anything) for. Fortunately, the Bucs fired former GM Dave Littlefield, the same Littlefield who thought Matt Morris (horrible, not a league average pitcher, making a truckload of money, so many deficiencies I can go on forever) would save the Pirates in '07, has been axed. First year GM Neal Huntington, hopefully, will understand that the current roster construction is absolutely horrible, that their minor league system is thin, at best, and must be replenished. Reports out now have been saying Huntington is asking for a blue chip prospect for Bay and Nady, which he will not get, but at least he is actively shopping around. Hopefully, he will not remain stubborn at his unattainable asking price and take the best offer of minor league prospects for both these guys. Again, the Pirates already have their future corners in McCutchen and Pearce eagerly waiting a chance for regular at bats.

Pitching: 2008 Staff, what could have been and what sadly is

Coming into this season, the Pirates looked like a potential sleeper team. Their top four starters in Snell-Gorzy-Maholm-Duke were all very young, Snell the oldest at 25. All were with considerable upside as each have flashed a significant amount ability at one point or another in their careers. But, they have all (except for Maholm, kind of) have badly sucked this year. They are all still very young, so a correction is possible, but it is not prudent for the Pirates to wait and see if they are all able to turn it around. The staff, as currently constructed, is not reliable. It is similarly not one on which to build upon for the future. The Pirates need to hope for the best but prepare for the worst.

Ian Snell: The Pirates were hoping to have Snell emerge as the staff ace this year following his breakout 2007 season. In just his second full season in the bigs, Snell put up a 3.76/1.33 last year with 177 Ks in 208 innings. Entering his third full season, where pitchers often break through to that next level, it has been a forgettable year for Snelly. He has completely lost touch of his pitches; his control has been a huge problem for him all year long. In 94 innings this year, he has allowed 55 walks to just 71 strikeouts while allowing 125 hits. His era is 5.92 and his whip is 1.91(!). He needs to be sent down to the minors so he can get his delivery worked out and get his head back on straight. This guy is a tough competitor, but very hard headed. He wants to compete and he wants to win, badly. He has great fire and a good makeup, I really like this guy. He is still just 25, and his stuff is electric, but he can just as easily continue this downward spiral as he can realign his mechanics and continue pitching as he did last year. It looks to me, now, that he will not materialize as a staff anchor. But he can be a capable #2 starter in the bigs if he fixes his shit, and I have the most faith in him in turning it around compared to the rest of the rotation.

Tom Gorzelanny: Coming into this season, the club was hoping that Gorzy would pitch at the top of this rotation forming a good lefty-righty combo with Snell. However, he has managed to pitch even worse than Snell this year, leaving the future of this rotation further in doubt. Gorzy, in his first full season in the bigs, had a breakout campaign in 2007. The southpaw threw a 3.89/1.40 in 201 innings. He's not a big strikeout guy but he gave up just 18 dongs and is very good at managing the game with the stuff he's got. This season, however, Gorzelanny has been a total disaster. He has recently been demoted to AAA, something you have got to think is coming soon for Snell, in order to try and get back on track. This year in 87 ip he has an era of 6.57 (!) and whip of 1.83 (!!). His '05 and '06 minor league numbers are impressive; he compiled a 1.24 whip at AA ball and .98 whip at AAA ball, respectively. He also pitched well after his promotion to the bigs in '06 and followed through with another solid year in '07. Hopefully, Gorzelanny will be able to fix himself now that he is back down in the minors and be able to return to the rotation before years end. But, his stuff is not overpowering and he is more of a game manager than a stud. He relies on deception and changing speeds to get hitters out and his whip has been a bit high for his era in the majors. He looks to me as a middle of the rotation guy, at best, providing he gets his stuff turned around in his current minor league stint.

Paul Maholm: Maholm has been pitching well this year to the tune of a 3.93/1.29. This may be sustainable, and these numbers are that of a #3 or #4 starter in the national league. But a correction closer to his body of work is more likely, I suspect. In his first full season in '06 he finished up the year with a 4.76 era and 1.61 whip in 171 innings. In 2007, he finished with a 5.03 era and 1.43 whip. He is not a big strikeout guy, and his minor league numbers are not overly impressive. He is a #5 starter based on the numbers he compiled in '06 and '07, and that is where I believe he is best suited in a major league rotation. He is not a guy to build a rotation around by any means and going into the year he had less expectation to perform as Snell and Gorzy were both expected to continue their maturation process. Maholm is, however, capable, but I do not believe he is any type of answer to their rotation woes in the long term.

Zach Duke: Duke is in many ways an embodiment of the struggles the Pirates have faced when trying to put together their rotation. He was their top minor league prospect in 2005 after putting up stunning numbers in AAA: 108 ip, 2.92/1.21. He got called up that same year and dominated major league hitters in the second half: 84 ip, 1.82/1.21. He then proceeded to completely forget how to pitch. He was worse than league average in his sophomore season in 2006 and even worse in 2007 before injury cut his season short. In 2008, back to full health, Duke was slotted in as the #4 starter but has pitched more like a #5 so far: 110 ip, 44:33 k:bb, 4.40/1.58. He is 25, still young, but has clearly shown a disconcerting drop off since his stellar 2005 breakout. Now 3 years removed, there is no reason to believe that he will come even remotely close to duplicating those numbers. He does not strike guys out, a 44:33 k to bb is absolutely atrocious, and it seems like his career in the bigs may be coming to an unfortunate, and early, end. Once with such a bright future, Duke has since struggled mightily.

This team is f***ed, eoh

The staff is currently a mess. All their guys have pitched pretty poorly and the future looks very uncertain. To make matters worse for the Pirates, they really have just one prospect who projects into their rotation in the near future, and not a very good one at that. Brad Lincoln, a first round selection by the Pirates in 2006, projects to be just a middle of the rotation guy. The Pirates spent their 48th overall pick on hard throwing starter Tanner Scheppers, but he is a rook, unproven, and will require seasoning in the minors.

The future is dim for the Pirates. After a half season in the books, their staff is bad. I also do not think it will not get much better in the near future. Their outfield will be very good in 2010 after, hopefully, Pearce and McCutchen have a year under their belts. It is impossible to predict what their infield will look like as they need to do a complete personnel overhaul at 1b, 2b, SS, and 3b. It looks like they only have one internal replacement at 3b in Alverez, so it remains to be seen how good, or more likely bad, their IF will be. Their pitching prospects are pretty miserable and they don't have any guys with top of the rotation upside in their system. All of the above reasons illustrate why they absolutely must trade Bay and Nady and get whatever prospects they can out of them. This team will not be competing until, minimum, 2011, if even by then. Hang in there Pirates' fans :\