Will it go to 15 years in a row?

People that have suffered through the last 14 years of losing baseball in Baltimore will tell you that this is the best they have seen the Orioles play and that this is the year it all turns around.  As of today, the Orioles have the best record in the American League, lead the league in home run’s, and are looking like a team that could make a serious run at the playoffs.

Unfortunately, there are numerous things that are standing in the Orioles way of continuing this over-achieving play and giving the fans of Baltimore their 15^th season in a row with a losing record.

1. No true #1 starter- The Orioles do not have a single complete game pitched yet this season.  To be a true competitor you need ad true #1 and #2 starter.  The Orioles have neither.

2.  Who can they bring in- The Orioles have never really been a buyer when it comes    

to mid-season trades.  They have always been a seller. To truly compete, they need to go out and get some players to help them contend.  The Orioles badly need a top SP( Oswalt is out there) and a 3B, and it looks like the Orioles will once again be looking to sell instead of buy. 

      3.  Can’t count on a rookie- Wei-Yin Chin can not and will not keep this up all year.     

You can’t count on a rookie to carry a team through the summer.  The league has not seen him and doesn’t have film on him. You are already seeing the league adjust to him and by the middle of the summer, the league will have caught up to him.  He is going to struggle and his struggles are going to put more pressure and more innings on the bullpen.  

4.   Defense wins Championships- This is true for every sport.  Sadly, the Orioles          
      have awful defense and throughout the year, this is going to catch up to them and           

      get them in trouble.  Currently, they have committed 40 errors this year, and are

      .001 away from having the lowest fielding percentage in the majors.  With

      defensive stats like that, there is no way the Orioles can keep winning at this rate.

5.  The AL East is the toughest division in baseball- Currently every team is at .500 or 
      better.  The Orioles have 48 games remaining against teams from the AL East(

41% of games left).  These teams not only have better pitching then the Orioles,   but have shown over the last 5-10 years, that when it matters, they will all beat the Orioles series after series.  These teams know how to go out and get that arm or bat off the bench to help them down the stretch.  As good as the Orioles have been, they are only 5 games ahead of the last place team in the division.  All signs point to the Orioles going something like 19-29 in these games, and that will not get it done.

     6.  Adam Jones- Can he keep this up?  He is playing out of his mind right now and
          you have to wonder if this can keep going.  He is currently on pace to have 205   
          hits, 51 Home Run’s, 108 RBI’s, 22 steals and hit for a .315 average.  His career 
          highs for any year are 165 hits, 25 home run’s, 83 rbi’s, 12 steals and an .284
          average.  Yes, he is a very good player and he is getting better with age, but there is  

          no way that the Orioles can expect this pace to continue. 

    7.   No Speed- The Orioles have 13 steals in 27 attempts.  That is dead last in the AL. 
          They can not steal bases and they can’t stretch out an extra base.  Along with that,  
          the Orioles have grounded into fifty double plays, again leading the league in that
          category. 

    8.   Expecting too much from a prospect- The Orioles currently have 2 of the top
          prospects in baseball in Machado and Bundy.  The Orioles seem to be setting up to  
          call them both up in September and are counting on one, or both of them to be able
          to step up and fill some of the holes that the Orioles currently have.

9.   Losing is contagious- The Orioles have had 14 straight losing seasons.  In that time,
      there have been times where they started off playing just as well.  This constant
      losing has become the Oriole way of baseball.  There has been no evidence, as of 
      yet, that the Orioles have the mental toughness to overcome this culture of
      losing.

10.    Pitching- The Orioles starting pitching is pitching way, way above their ability.  This will not keep up.  The second any of the starters struggle a little and come back down to earth, the Orioles record will start to fall.  With the way the AL East can hit and the innings the starters have already pitched, pitching is the key to the Orioles keeping up this pace and contending in the East.  That leads into the bullpen which currently have the 2^nd best ERA in the AL and Jim Johnson is leader the league in saves.  Again, these are not all-stars, and this is not a feel-good Disney movie, and this group of players can not and will not keep this up. 

The Orioles play in the toughest division in baseball and yes, they are playing great baseball now, but sadly, there is no way they can keep this up.  There are just too many things that are going perfect for them right now, and if one of those things starts to slide, that will start the downfall of the 2012 Baltimore Orioles season. 

So much to see, so little time

With two of the four professional sports in the middle of their playoffs and baseball hosting interleague play, my best friend will be the TV this weekend—not to mention Preakness, which will stop half of Baltimore from going to either National Park to see the Orioles and/or going to Wine in the Woods (it’s exactly what it sounds like). 

Don’t worry, for those of you who want nothing to do with sports, there is a Harry Potter marathon on ABC Family, a SVU marathon on USA, a Housewives marathon on Bravo, and I’m sure some sort of marathon about an underage pregnant girl on MTV.  Then again, if you are not interested in sports, I have no idea why you are reading this blog!

Not all of us can live in LA, where from today through Sunday, they have two teams in the NBA playoffs, one team in the NHL playoffs, and one baseball team hosting a home series.  If you are a sports fan in LA, the odds are you will be at one of these events and not glued to your television like the rest of the sports world.  Dear Philly fans, I am not forgetting about you (even though for betterment of society, I probably should).  Philly fans get treated to not only having the hated Red Sox in town for an interesting weekend series, they also get to host Boston in the NBA playoffs.  Don’t think I forgot about Indiana finally hosting a home playoff game that they will be favored in.  I am just curious how many people will be at that game and how many people will still be celebrating Leslie Knope’s inauguration to city council.   

Enough about the B league action this weekend, let’s focus on the main event, interleague play.  Ever since its inception in 1997, it is been a staple of controversy.  There are some that say it ruins the integrity of the game and that it is immoral.  Ironically, these are the same people that think it is ok to take your cousin to Senior Prom.  These opponents argue that it is unfair for numerous reasons, but I am the complete opposite end of that spectrum.  I feel it is great.  Attendance increases by an average of 18.7% at each stadium, fans get the chance to see players they would never be able to see regularly, it creates and helps to promote natural rivalries, and it gives the fans a chance to see rematches of some of the best World Series games we have ever seen (nine times so far in interleague play).

These series are about way more than just stats, they are about increasing the joy of the game, not only for the fans, but also for the players.  As for the stats side of it (if you were wondering), the AL leads all-time 1939-1973 over the NL; Mark Buehrle and Jamie Moyer are separated by one win for the all-time interleague win leader( 23 and 22); Ichiro is very close to catching Pujols for the all-time average leader and Alex Rodriguez has a stronghold on the all-time RBI leader( 174).

The actual series themselves rotate each year as to which division plays each division, but the first weekend is always designed to promote the natural rivalries by city ( New York/New York, Chicago/Chicago, Baltimore/DC, LAA/SD, Oak/SF), and for the most part, these games are always sold out and always fun to watch.  That being said, one of the arguments against interleague play is that it matches up two awful teams and no one wants to watch that. Some would say NYM/TOR, ZONA/KC, and SEA/COL fall into that category.  That is such a weak argument!  With normal league play, you are always going to have series that match up two sub-par teams, but at least this way, the players get to play against different players and in different ballparks and the fans get to enjoy seeing other players. 

Normally, the Philly/Boston series is a matchup of two of the top teams in the game, but with all the struggles/injuries both teams are experiencing, this is one of the less desirable match-ups this weekend. 

The Baltimore/Washington match up shows off the first place team in the AL East against the upstart Nationals team, which seems to be in every game they play.  The Orioles get the luxury of missing a Strasburg start, but the rest of that rotation has been solid, so this stacks up to be a great series. 

The Atlanta vs. Tampa series starts off with a bang with two of the top young pitchers in the game going head to head in Hanson and Shields.  We also get a World Series rematch with the Oak/SF series, and who doesn’t love a world series rematch? 

Votto and Bruce have struggled this year for Cincy, but Yankee stadium has a way of surrendering home runs at an alarming pace, so this could be the series to get the NL Central favorites (at least to me) back on track. 

Is Houston’s start for real or will they fade away into nothing as they seem to always do?  A weekend series at home against the 2-time defending AL Champions should let us know where they stand. 

Regardless of the pitcher or how the teams are playing, the Chi/Chi match-up is always worth watching.  I wish that series was played more.  There is nothing like watching cross town rivals battle it out at Wrigley. 

Finally, you get an A-list roster of pitchers throwing from the first pitch until the last game on the board. 

Josh Johnson, Strasburg, a resurgent Lowe, David Price, CJ Leiws, Greinke, and Santana are all taking the mound.

Do yourself a favor and ignore all of the negative people out there and all of the crap comments that are floating around about interleague play. Make like me, glue yourself to your TV, and enjoy everything this weekend is about.

Where were you???

So many huge events happen in the world, and people can always remember where they were when that event happen.  I am the same way, and with the exception of 9/11, I feel like at least the top 15 or 20 memorable events I can remember all involve sports.  I know I should care more about politics or religion or the arts or whatever else other people love and care about, but for me, it is all about sports.  I love to watch sports, play sports, talk about sports, debate sports, occasionally bet on sports, and just overall always want sports involved.

Even the small things that happen in sports and games that do not mean that much, if you mention that game or event, I can tell you where I was and who I watched it with and probably the result. 

From the early Tyson fights to TO's catch against GB in the playoffs to 2131, Murray's 500th, Phil's first major, Morales breaking his ankle celebrating, Vick coming back against WVU in Morgantown.  It doesn't matter the sport or the year, I remember it, and when I think back on the memory I smile.  I can't tell you where I was when the Vietnam wall came down, or where I was when Obama officially became president.  I can't tell you where I was when we killed Bin Laden or Hussain, but I know exactly where I was when Earnhardt died on the track and when Willis Maghee broke his leg in a way I thought he would never be able to walk again.  Laettner hit his shot over Kentucky on my birthday.  That was my 12th birthday.  I can tell you every person that was in my basement for my birthday party, what they were wearing and what we did the rest of the night.  If Laettner hadn't hit that shot that night, I would not be able to remember any of those details.   

I will never debate politics or religion.  However, I will debate anything about sports at anytime about any topic.  I guess that is how you know you are a true sports fan.  Some would call me pathetic and some would tell me to get a life.  Those people will just never understand.  Every person has a hobby and a passion, and for me that is everything sports. 

This is how you recruit

Certain college football games jump out at you as you watch them and you are amazed at how much NFL talent is on the field.  This year, I watched both LSU/Bama games and I do not see anyway that from both full teams, at least 50 people do not end up in the NFL.  This got me thinking about some of the other great games I have seen and other games I have watched where I was amazed at the NFL talent on the field.  The Rose bowl between Usc and Texas( vince young, reggie bush etc) and the Miami/Ohio St. National Champ game jump to mind.  I did some research and I came across this blog.
http://osu-buckskin.blogspot.com/2010/08/what-college-game-had-most-future-nfl.html

This is a fantastic blog and I am very impressed at the time it took to come with up these numbers, and I was also shocked at some of the games on that list.  The more I looked into those games, I can remember exactly where I was for most of these games. 

As you can see from this list, certain teams are so stacked, that it almost didn't matter who they played, they were on this list.  Not since that USC Rose Bowl have I seen a game with so much NFL talent as last 2 years of LSU/Bama.  I would not be surprised that in 4 years after both rosters are done, that one of those games will be on the top 10 of this list.

It comes down to Iceman and Maverick

I have seen some great players come through NCAA Football, but I am talking about the best of the best.  To understand the generation I am talking about, I will say that the likes of Emmitt Smith, Barry Sanders, OJ, Earl Campbell, Elway and some others are not people I actually watched play in college football, so keep that in mind when reading this list. 

The average person just assumes if someone is great in the NFL, that they were great in college and on the other side, if they are average in the NFL, then they were average in college.  That could not be more wrong.  It bothers me when I hear people talking about how great someone was in college, just because they are good in the NFL, so their college experience gets exaggerated.  Take Peyton Manning for example, he never won the championship, never won the SEC, and even more, he never beat his rival, Florida.  They year after he graduated, Tennessee went undefeated and won the national championship.  All that being said, people talk about Peyton like he was The Natural all through college. 

For me, it has always been difficult to compare great football players, because each position is so different and as a player you can be great in so many ways.  I have seen so many great players, and even as I type this list up, I am not questioning who I have on the list, more so the omission of others.  My top 10 consists of 6 qb’s, 2 rb’s, a wr and a db.  There are about 8 linebackers, 3-4 DT’s, 3 OL, 3 corners, and numerous rb’s( think Faulk, LT, Peterson etc) that I could have on this list, but again to me, this is about being the best of the best( can you tell I watched Top Gun this weekend?

A great quarterback obviously has all the physical traits it takes to play the position, but he also possess things you can not teach.  The ability to win any under circumstance, the ability to take a team and put them on your back and will them to victory.  In no order, 6 of the greatest NCAA players I have ever seen are; Danny Wuerffel, Tim Tebow, Vince Young, Charlie Ward, Mike Vick, and Matt Leinart.  These quarterbacks were a combined 175-20-1 with 3 of those losses coming in a head-to-head match up.  Going to Virginia Tech when I did, I got to see Vick in person.  I have never seen a player take over and control a game the way he did.  Say what you will about his off-field actions( this is about pure football talent), and judge him for that as a man, but as a player, there is no way you can deny he is one of the best talents to ever play at the NCAA level.  Many people have their own list, and I am sure most of these guys are on that list.  I would bet money, that Wuerffel gets left off most of those list.  Many forget, mainly because of his awful NFL career, how dominant he was in college.  He lost 6 games in 4 years.  He had the ability, no matter what the situation and who the opponent was, to be able to dominate the game.  The Rose bowl game between Young and Leinart is the best football game I ever seen.  Yes, there were NFL players all over the field, but that made it even better of a game to watch.  Think of all the linebackers and D-lineman that were in that game and made it to the NFL, yet Young and Leinart went blow for blow, and showed the nation, that they were in fact 2 of the greatest college quarterbacks of all time.  I can understand if people are not that high on Leinart due to the fact that he played with other great college players on that offense, but I strongly believe that he was still the best or 2^nd best( teaser alert!!!) player on that great mini dynasty that USC had during his time there.

That leaves us with the other 4 players on my list.  Reggie Bush, Peter Warrick, Charles Woodson, and Randy Moss.  I struggled putting Moss on here because of the teams he went against day to day ( same struggle I had with LT, Faulk, and Kellen Moore), but at the end, the things he did on the field, led him to sneak into my top 10.  As I have Leinart and Vick on my list also, Bush and Warrick correlate with both of them.  Bush was on that USC team with Leinart and others.  Bush got me to watch every single USC game, because I knew that every time he touched the ball it could be the best play I have ever seen.  He had a game against Fresno St. one night that supplanted him in my eyes as one of the best I had ever seen( 513 all purpose yards).  It wasn’t just the yards gained, it was the way he gained them.  I do not care about how he is doing in the NFL or what celebrity he is dating or has dated( he is not hurting in that dept).  As I mentioned, I went to VT when Vick was there, and I saw first hand all of his games.  I watched the National Championship game in 2000 when it was Vt vs. FSU.  Peter Warrick was hands down the best player on the field and Vick was not even close.  Warrick was a highlight machine during his career and has the stats to back it up, but watching that game up close cemented for me Warrick’s spot on my list. 

Each year that gets played, I see great people.  I am still waiting for that next great player to come along and earn a spot on my best of the best list.  So far, no one is coming close with their college career to even be in the conversation. 

Mo Money, Mo Money, Mo Money

The 2012 draft was all about Andrew Luck and RG3.  People are acting like after that, no one else matters.  There were some amazing talents out there on both sides of the ball.  That being said, this is solely about one player; Maurice Claiborne, CB, LSU.  I watched every game he played in college.  I firmly believe that he will have a better NFL career then anyone else in the top 10.  I know Luck, RG3, Richardson, Kalil etc are all incredibly talented, but Claiborne has been ready to play in the NFL since he was 18 years old.

He caught my eye the same way Adrian Peterson, Champ Bailey, Eric Berry, Mike Vick and more recently Patrick Peterson, Julio Jones, Aj Green, Cam Newton etc.  These were talents that from the first game you saw them play, you said yourself, this guy is going to play in the NFL and he is going to dominate.  I feel the same way about Claiborne.  His cover skills are already at a pro-bowl level and his return game is going to get him on the field more in the NFL( think Deion, think patrick Peterson etc).  He will be a pro-bowler by the end of his 2^nd year in the league( if the pro-bowl still exists at that time.

I could look back on this in 3 years and I could be way wrong, but for now, I will stand by what I have been saying since the season ended last year and that is ; Claiborne is the best talent in this draft and he will have the best NFL career out of this draft class.

These bug bites are going to leave a mark

Every game there are 292 pitches thrown on average.  With any pitch, a play could develop that could change everything—a player’s career, a team’s playoff chance; a play could even break a fan’s heart. 

With just one pitch, an injury could plague a player, and then everything changes.  This year, more than any year in recent memory, the injury bug has bitten almost every team in baseball.  Some teams have been impacted more than others, but even the smallest injury early in the year can change the course of an entire season. Before the season starts, every organization assembles their team with specific roles for each player, and when someone goes down, it can force everything to change.

In the last couple of weeks, we have seen numerous all-stars hit the DL and each poses a serious threat to the success of their teams’ season.  From Rivera to Ellsbury to Longoria, these injuries are changing the landscape of baseball in 2012.  Obviously Rivera and Ellsbury are huge injuries, but I do not think they’ll be as much of a shock to the system as Longoria going down.  He is not only a MVP threat every year, he is the heart of that lineup and locker-room.  He makes everyone around him better.  Tampa will always have the pitching to keep games close, but losing your best bat and most talented offensive player is going to be a serious blow to any division title and World Series aspirations. That would be the case for any team losing a player like Longoria, and I am sure is the biggest fear for many GMs. As for Rivera, that is a sad story, but the Yankees will find someone young and groom him into their closer for now (as they already have), and if they don’t fix their starting pitching, it won’t matter if Rivera was there and healthy all season, because he can’t pitch four innings a day anyway!

Not only are these major injuries making waves, but there are a good number of the lesser names with major injuries and a few others with the “nagging” kind that will hamper many teams.  Some players being gone for the season or just a short time are not going to have the same influence as the guys discussed earlier, but those with the lingering injury bug may not perform at their peak level for awhile or even the entire year. The likes of Chris Young, Tim Hudson, Carl Crawford, Mike Pineda, Drew Storen, Homer Bailey and Brian Wilson to name a few are all big injuries that will serve as a harmful force to their teams’ season.

In some cases, like Young, the effects of these disruptions will only be determined once the player has returned to the lineup. Chris Young is the best hitter in the Arizona lineup (with all respect to Upton of course).  He was putting up monster numbers before he got hurt, and even with him due to come back within two  weeks, their offense has been invisible since he went out, and in a division where a playoff spot comes down to the last week of the season, giving away these games now could come back to bite them in September.

In a situation like Pineda, the Yankees traded away a lot to get a guy with the hope to have him atop the rotation. Now with both him and Chamberlain hurt, they are forced to have a veteran like Petite come out of retirement to pitch. They invested a lot into an unproven commodity and now will pay the price for a situation they had no control over. As for Bailey and Wilson— yes they are both all-star closers good for 40+ saves a season, but every year closers come and go, and even with these injuries, both teams (Boston and SF) seem to have the closer situation handled for now and should be able to manage without rushing to the phones looking for a trade.

As I talk about all of these impact players who are already hurt, there are a lot more who have stayed healthy even with a history of hitting the shelf. Guys like J. Heyward, A. Rodriguez, J. Beckett, T. Tulowitski, and Josh Hamilton, to name a few. Fans of their respective teams hope every time they play they will come out of the game healthy, because they too are so important to the success of this season.  If any of these players happen to find themselves on the DL for an extended period of time, their team could be in deep trouble as well. 

Finally, I will say as a longtime fan of the sport, you always want your team to do well, and the rival team to do poorly, but you never root for an injury and you never want to see another player get hurt.  That being said, every year there are injuries that are so random and funny, you have to laugh at them (Sosa pulling a muscle while sneezing is one of my favorites!).  Look at a guy like Chamberlin, I mean what professional athlete gets hurt playing on a trampoline?! I will let that slide because he was just being a good dad and playing with his kid, but come on!  Of course I can’t go without mentioning the now infamous Josh Outman injury. It needs to be talked about and everyone should be able to get a laugh over this since nothing serious happened.  Earlier this year, he was placed on the DL with a strained oblique, an injury which was credited to vomiting while gorging himself at an all you can eat buffet. Yummy!

For now, we can just hope that no one else catches the injury bug. But as we all know from years of watching sports, that ain’t never gonna happen.  All a team can do is pray to the baseball gods, and hope that they have a solid back-up waiting in the wings or buried somewhere in the minors.

I thought the Rocky Mountains would be a little rockier than this

As soon as pitchers and catchers start to report, hope springs eternal for each and every team and fan.  People across the nation are talking about how their team has gotten better, the new players on the roster, how the young guys have matured, etc.  In my case, the thoughts go something like: Weiters will win MVP, Orioles will win the East, and Adam Jones will make a run at the Triple Crown. 

However, once the season starts, that optimism slowly starts to fade away.  As a fan and as a player you cannot account for other teams being better than expected and you cannot account for injuries, but the one thing you can count on is how the players on your team are playing and whether they are living up to expectations. 

It may be unfair for fans to expect the good players to never struggle and for the average players to always play above their talent level, but hey, it happens.  A true fan has emotions tied to their favorite team and players and for all the love we give to the players, a little hate and disappointment is allowed.  When someone is playing way below their skill level, it is disappointing and it comes as a huge let-down.  This year, there seems to be a good amount of all-star players playing not only below expectations, but below any level at which they ever played before. 

There has been so much hoopla about Pujols and his struggles, but there is no reason to discuss him.  He just may be the greatest hitter of our generation who is simultaneously in one of the worst slumps of any player in our generation.  I dis-agree with the fans booing him, but with that contract and the expectations on him, I can understand why. 

There are other all-stars playing at a very poor level, but for different reasons I will let them slide.  For example, Teixeira and Adrian Gonzalez are both not living up to expectations.  Yes, they are both on my fantasy teams and I am not happy with either of their performance, but I will not let my love of fantasy sports bias me in any way!  Teixeira is a notoriously slow starter, so I will give him until the end of May to pass judgment.  That being said, even for him, this is a very slow year with OBP, RBI, and HRs.  Deep down I want to believe that if he was playing in the Orange and White, he would be having a Kemp-esque year, but that is just wishful thinking.  Gonzalez was a pre-season MVP candidate.  He is having a very poor year so far, but with all the injuries to that line-up, and not to mention the absurdity going on in that dugout, I will also let him slide for now. 

Now, players that should be just plain ashamed of themselves are the likes of Joey Votto, Heath Bell, Tim Lincecum, and Carl Crawford.  If I was a little kid still collecting baseball cards (nothing will ever top the ’89 upper deck Griffey card), I would have tons of cards for all of these players.  Instead, these guys are playing at a level where I would trade all of their cards together for a Snickers Bar.  These players are all-stars, and some have signed big contracts to deliver for their team.  Also, because of the downward slide that Pujols is on, these players seem to be getting a free pass from the press.  That being said, even if the press was all over Lincecum, I am not convinced he doesn’t do anything off the field that involves the news or reading.  Players the likes of Josh Johnson and some others, I will leave off this list, since he, along with others, are coming off surgery and that will take some time to fully recover. 

Carl Crawford is shaping up to be one of the worst free agent signings ever.  Between injuries and just awful playing, he is working his way towards having to go down to AAA to fix whatever is wrong with him.  I get that the whole Boston team is playing down (more on that later), but for who he is and the contract he received, he is an incredible let down. 

Batters were not the only people to sign huge contracts in the off-season.  While Miami was signing what seemed to be every player they could, they landed Heath Bell to be their shut down closer.  As I type this, Heath Bell is currently sitting in a bullpen and has been replaced as closer.  He has almost as many walks now as he did all of last year.  His velocity is down and his WHIP and ERA are up.  Those stats jump as a huge letdown year.  For Lincecum and Votto, these two were Cy Young and MVP candidates respectively, and even though it is early and they can turn the season around, right now, they are playing so down, they will not even make the All-Star Team.

I talk about all the players that are under-performing, but for the first time that I can remember, the biggest let down of the early season may be a manager.  With all the pub and press that Bobby Valentine came in with and the team he is managing, he is under-performing at a level I have never seen in my thirty years as a baseball fan.  Almost every player on his team is playing below their level, he is fighting and disagreeing with veteran players, he is making questionable choices with his lineup and pitchers, and overall he is doing an incredibly poor job managing.  He was brought in to win and to win now.  I don’t see him getting fired mid-season, but if this keeps up all year, this could be a very interesting off-season for him.

I do hope that all the players that are under performing turn it around, because baseball is a great sport and it is made even greater when the stars are playing at star level.