Pick of the day 10/29

Tonight is a huge night for the Yankees. On the mound for game 2 of the World Series is AJ Burnett for the Yanks and the most hated player in Yankee stadium Pedro Martinez for the Phillies. The Phillies are certainly taking a risk pitching Pedro at this point in the Series, since he hasn't hardly pitched in the last month. Pedro is past his prime but they are hoping that his experience in not only the playoffs but the playoffs in the New York atmosphere will help him guide the Phillies to a 2-0 start to the series. Unfortunately for the Phillies this is not going to happen. Burnett has shown that he is on top of his game late this season. He didn't have a great outing in his last game against the Angels, but then again that's only going to light the fire under him to get it done tonight. The Yankees will win game 2 to even the series going into 3 games in Philadelphia starting Saturday. Although they would have liked to take both games at home before the travel day they are going to have to make due with a series split. The Yankees are going to bring out all of the fire power tonight. They will likely score at least 5 runs and probably more. Pedro will do some good things tonight and show his expertise in these types of games but I think the Yanks will get to him before he is able to go out on a positive note. Look for a high scoring win for the Yanks. Burnett will take it into the later innings possibly past the 6th or even 7th. The interesting part of this series will not happen tonight it will happen when the Yankees have to deal with winning on the road.

Pick of the day

Celtics vs Cavs in regular season game 1. For these two teams last year was nothing but a disappointment. Yeah they both made the playoffs and had great seasons up to that point but neither team was able to make it to the big show and for these elite teams that is how they are measured. Who will be able to come back from the painful playoff losses to have another great season and make their way back to the playoffs where they can redeem themselves. I think both teams stand a legitimate chance to make it to the post season again this year. Obviously the Cavs still have the MVP of the league in Lebron James and they have given him back up ammunition with Shaq. On the other side you have Kevin Garnett back from his season ending injury that likely kept them from making too far in the playoffs last year. They still have the big 3 in KG, Allen, and Pierce. This team has one of the great young point guards in the league in Rondo although if you ask me he still hasn't won me over completely. As for tonight when these 2 teams square off I think the edge will definitely go with the Cavs. Unfortunately for the Celtics they have some things going on off the court that may pre-occupy them tonight. Glen Davis is out due to a broken thumb which will also call for a suspension due to his off court actions Sunday night where he got into a scuffle. Also Rondo and the team have yet to come up with a deal to keep him from becoming a free agent at the end of the year so that could be on his mind tonight as the deadline for a deal is later this week. Without complete focus on the game you hardly stand a shot against Lebron and company. Lebron led the Cavs to the best record in the league last year with an almost flawless home record. Look for him to lead the team again tonight as they put a hurting on the Celtics.

Question of the day 10/27

What is up with the lopsided NFL? Is it just a coincidence that there have been so many blowouts this year so far and that there are still so many unbeaten teams or is the league showing some weakness? Will the NFL do something about this right away or will they wait, and what can they do to change the competition level between the teams? This question comes after multiple games decided by more than 4 touchdowns this past weekend.

Pick of the day 10/25

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!!! Well for all you football fans out there I'm going to break down week 7 for you even though it's kind of a pointless week seeing how my Denver Broncos have a bye. I think bye weekends for your favorite team is like Columbus day. I mean yeah great you have the day off from work, but there is just nothing to look forward too.  Ok that's a little bit of an exaggeration because I still look forward to watching all football games on Sunday, but it's just not quite the same. For me personally if Denver isn't playing I like to just jump on the bandwagon for whoever is playing Dallas. This week I'm a huge Atlanta Falcon fanatic. Not really, I'm only joking but it's hard not to root against the Cowgirls. Anyway, on to my pick of the day, which is going to come from the Minnesota at Pittsburgh game. When choosing the game I tried to stay away from the Indianapolis game where they are playing the winless Rams. I thought it was just too obvious how the Rams would end the Colts streak. No, instead I picked a game where although Pittsburgh is just 4-2, they are actually a favorite as they play at home against the undefeated Vikings. These two teams don't meet often as they have only played 2 times since the 2001 season. Here's my question though, how are the Steelers a 6 point favorite to win this game. Yeah they are at home, yeah they are the defending champs, yeah they have the best defensive threat in the league back from an injury, but really 6 point favorite over the team who hasn't lost yet this year. Lets not forget the first 3 games Pittsburgh played this year. They beat Tennessee in overtime 13-10 at home. Tennessee!!!!, who hasn't won yet this year. Tennessee!!! who just got beat by New England 59-0. Next, they went to the Windy City and got beat. Chicago looks like a decent team this year, but then again it's not like they are undefeated like the Vikings. Week 3 the Steelers lost again, this time to Cincinnati who yes also looks like an much better team this year but still, nothing stunning about their season to this point. What I'm saying is the Steelers come into this game 4-2, so far this season the experts are getting them all wrong. Pittsburg has only been the victor in 1 spread this year. They are the favorite every week and I understand why they have been with the opponents they have had, but why this week? I understand the 3 points for home field advantage but why 6 it doesn't add up. Not only do I think the Steelers should not have this much respect but I think that Minnesota is going to move to 7-0 after this game. The Steelers play great at home and they rely mostly on their defense to win games, but this week they are going to have to stop both the pass and run. The Vikings will score points. They average over 30 a game. The question will be if the Steelers can keep up on offense. They have only scored 30 or more points in 1 game this year, and I just don't see them being able to have their offense on the field long enough to get that done. Look for Favre to continue doing a great job setting himself up with the running of AP. If the Steelers don't stop the run early and often they are going to get crushed. I can see this game staying close as long as Pittsburgh converts on offense and forces a couple turnovers, but they are going to have to play better than they have in any game all year to win this game. I will say this, if Pittsburgh somehow wins this game it could change my mind about their season in a hurry. This to me could be the start of another great season for the Steelers, but I would not count on it.

Pick of the day 10/22

I decided to go ahead and look at the game tonight between the Yankees and Angels. On the mound for the Yankees will be AJ Burnett facing off against the Angels Ace John Lackey. Although I'm 99% sure the Yankees will win the series I think that the Angels stand a real chance tonight. The Yankees have been just about perfect so far these playoffs, but something tells me that Burnett is not going to be what he has been as of late. He struggled for a good while during the regular season and I think that he could have problems tonight where the angels can really swing the bat in the home ball park. I know that Burnett had a good start his last outing but remember what the weather was like playing in New York. It was cold and windy and somehow every time the Angels looked to have hit a long ball the wind and the cold air kept the ball in the field of play. Tonight is a new story, warm weather, an electric crowd, and of course the rally monkey will all come in to play and you can forget about the Angel errors that they had in New York. All the factors point to a much better offensive performance by LA. Last time Lackey was on the mound he did give up 4 runs in just 6 innings but lets remember that only 2 were earned runs and he only had the 1 run of support given to him by Morales' RBI single. Even if he gave that same performance tonight without the 2 additional runs scored on errors the Angels would only have to score 3 runs to win. I can't guarantee much but I can guarantee that the Angels will score some runs tonight. Look for Lackey to be good enough to win tonight. He should have the run support needed to win and the Angels can always rely on late inning heroics with the rally monkey in the house. Angels are my pick of the day. Look for some long balls by the Angels and don't be suprised if this is high scoring. Guerrero, Hunter, and Napoli all have 2 homeruns off of Burnett in their career. It will be interesting to see if they play Napoli over Mathis tonight at the catcher position. Napoli seems to have Burnett's number however Mathis has come up big in the last few games. If Mathis does start Napoli's bat could come in handy late in the game.

Question of the day 10/22

Just watching the game last night between the Phillies and the Dodgers made me think of how important home field advantage is. I noticed how completely silent it got in that stadium during all 3 Dodger homeruns and how absolutely "bazurk" it got when the Phillies did just about anything. It was almost depressing as someone rooting for the Dodgers because just the noise level alone and the crowd support seemed like it set the pace for the game and LA never had a shot. Anyway, on to the question of the day. Which sport has home field/court/arena/ice advantage that is most evident, and if there is one, which team in that sport has toughest place to play?

Question of the day 10/21

Based on the horrific calls we have seen so far in the MLB post season, should the league be interested in implementing instant replay for more than just the long balls?

Pick of the day 10/21

Tonight is a great matchup in the NLCS Championship with the Dodgers and Philllies in which the Phillies look to seal the deal with one more win to get to the World Series. Pitching for the Dodgers and looking to stay alive is the crafty right hander Vincent Padilla who so far has pitched well in his first two outings in the post-season. On the other side of the ball Phillies go to the slinging left hander Cole Hamels. Hamels has been less than impressive throughout the entire year for the phillies as they have pretty much won games in only half of his starts. This will be the second time Hamels has faced the Dodgers this series. His first outing he gave up 4 earned runs over five and one third innings including eight Dodger hits. Keeping last year in mind though Hamels will hope to regain his confidence and pitch the Phillies back into the World Series for the second straight year.
With the cold bats working for the Dodgers look for Torre to play small ball in the first few innings to try to get an early lead. If the Dodgers are patient and force Hamels to throw the ball over the plate they should be able to get some baserunners. With the speed they have they can force the phillies to catch up and it seems like that is the only way to stand a chance against them. The Dodgers have a great percentage of the wins coming with only a small margin of victory so they know how to hold the lead even though that was not evident in game 4 when Rollins came up with a game winning walk off with 2 outs in the 9th. My prediction in this game is that the Dodgers will jump out to an early lead possibly with a couple runs in the 1st inning. I think the Phillies will certainly get theirs but after a few innings of Padilla grinding it out the Phillies will surrender to a 3-2 lead in the series after their defeat. Final score prediction for tonight is 7-3 Dodgers. Padilla will likely continue his streak and get to at least the 6th or 7th inning while Hamels might make it only to the 4th or 5th. If The Dodgers are able to fight off the blows early they will win and they will make it much more interesting going back to the warm weather in LA where they can get a loud Dodger stadium behind them and make this a series. Look for Matt Kemp and Casey Blake to have some big at bats today. I think you will see lots of hits for the Dodgers as they bare down against the young lefty.

Question of the day

Also, each day I will open up a question for everyone to respond. My hope is to open up discussion with this.

Pick of the day

Each day I will select a good game to predict the winner of, and I will share my thoughts on it. In some cases I may choose to just talk about someone to bench or play in fantasy leagues on a given day.

Hello

Hello and welcome to my blog. In this blog I will be discussing matters of any sport. Generally my posts will be related to Basketball, Football, Baseball, and Golf for both professional and college. If anyone ever would like to discuss a certain team, event, or season please feel free to make your posts and I will gladly give you my take. I hope that everyone will enjoy this blog to talk sports and be able to follow teams and players that may not get much media on say ESPN or other popular networks. If you want to talk fantasy sports or anything of that nature feel free to let us know your opinion. Thanks for joining me in the debate.

MT