Month: March 2010 (Page 19 of 59)

      2010 MLB Preview: AL East

      March 22, 2010 /

      In order to help get you ready for the MLB season, we’re doing division-by-division rankings with quick overviews on how each club could fair in 2010. Next to each team, you’ll also find a corresponding number written in parenthesis, which indicates where we believe that club falls in a league-wide power ranking. Be sure to check back throughout the next two weeks leading up to the season, as we will be updating our content daily. Enjoy.

      All 2010 MLB Preview Content | AL East Preview | AL Central Preview | AL West Preview | NL East | NL Central | NL West

      First up is the AL East.

      1. New York Yankees (1)
      If you think I would get cute in these rankings and suggest that some upstart team would derail the Yankees this season, then you sir, are sadly mistaken. I just don’t have the conjones to bet against them, especially after they added Curtis Granderson, Javier Vazquez and Nick Johnson to their already stacked roster. Sure they lost World Series MVP Hideki Matsui and Johnny Damon, the latter of which loved to work the count and provided the Yanks with some pop over the last couple of seasons. But thanks to Granderson, Johnson, Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Mark Texeira, Robinson Cano and Jorge Posada, the lineup is still stacked from top to bottom. Vazquez, CC Sabathia, AJ Burnett and Mariano Rivera will once again highlight a strong pitching staff and assuming they don’t suffer any major injuries, there’s nothing to suggest that the Bombers won’t make another championship run. That said, let’s not be oblivious to the potential problems that could arise for the Yanks this season. Age is a factor, as is the fact that Granderson can’t hit lefties and will be under the spotlight as the club’s biggest offseason acquisition. Plus, for as good as Vazquez was over the past couple of years, he was a disaster the last time he wore pinstripes (Boston fans remember this well.) Should the Yankees win another World Series? Yeah – especially considering they have the best-purchased roster in baseball. But just like last year, they still have to prove it between the lines and they’re not immune to hurdles getting in their way.

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      MLB

      Flowchart of what goes through Kobe Bryant’s head during a game

      March 22, 2010 /

      Black Sports Online found/created this Kobe Bryant flow chart. (Click the picture for a bigger version.)

      Funny? Yes. Fair? Probably not. Kobe averages 5.0 assists per game (#23 in the league), so while he does shoot the ball a lot, he creates for teammates as well. In fact, Jason Richardson, Kevin Martin, Michael Redd, Vince Carter and Ben Gordon are all shooting guards that have a higher shot-to-assist ratio. (Though Jamal Crawford and Ray Allen do not, and that has to be a little scary for Kobe.)

      Fantasy Basketball, NBA

      Pros Go Broke, And So Can You

      March 22, 2010 /

      What do former heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield, NFL Hall-of-Fame Quarterback, Johnny Unitas and MLB Hall-of-Fame pitcher, Rollie Fingers, all have in common? They went from riches to rags. Our imaginations are staggered by the amount of money professional athletes are paid to play in the big leagues. More mind boggling is that, in spite of the millions of dollars these big names raked in during their rich careers, they have all managed to end up empty-handed.

      Why do we have so many famous athletes who have gone broke? For some of them, the exercising of poor judgment with regards to financial decisions is to blame. Others may have suffered career-ending injuries before they bothered to think about saving any of that fast cash for an early retirement. Still other athletes go through messy divorces and wind up losing lots of their assets to ex-spouses and their children. Even financially solvent athletes still playing in the game today are not beyond the grip of poverty. Some of them are already spending next season’s salary.

      While it may astound us that you can go from the top of the heap to the bottom of the pile so easily, it can also be a lesson from which we mere mortals can learn. If you are making decent money in your job today, you should be saving for the future. Socking away just twenty percent of your monthly paycheck into an interest-bearing fund or CD can ensure that, if your company folds, or if you’re laid off, you will have something to fall back upon.

      It doesn’t matter if you’re a pro-bowler or a pro-janitor, you need to make sound financial decisions now regarding your finances, or you can end up in the same sort of financial mess that so many famous athletes face at the end of their careers. The best way to start planning your finances and find solutions to your debt problems, if any, is by looking up come credit counseling services on the Internet and by getting in touch with them.

      Rumors & Gossip

      Goodell supports change to overtime rules

      March 22, 2010 /

      Per Pro Football Talk…

      Commissioner Roger Goodell, in a press conference held in conjunction with the annual league meetings in Orlando, spoke out in support of the tweak in the overtime rules proposed by the Competition Committee.

      The proposal would prevent the team that receives the kickoff in overtime during a playoff game from winning with only a field goal on the first drive.

      This is definitely a case where the league could let perfect get in the way of better, and while the proposed system is better, it still has its faults. First, there is still a lot of emphasis on the coin flip because the team that gets the ball first in overtime (Team A) would get it first once sudden death starts if Team B were to match Team A’s field goal. There’s also the matter of Team B not getting a chance to match Team A’s touchdown since the game would be over. No matter how you slice it, the loser of the coin flip is at a disadvantage.

      Goodell supports a system that would retain the sudden death format, and I tend to agree with him. That’s why I like the blind bid idea that we’ve discussed at length on another post. It successfully devalues the initial possession (by using poor field position) so that sudden death can proceed as normal. Due to the sheer difficulty that some have in getting their heads around how the bidding process works (and how it devalues possession), I know that this idea will never come to fruition.

      So this proposed change is better than nothing.


      Photo from fOTOGLIF

      NFL

      Source: Tournament expansion ‘will happen’

      March 22, 2010 /

      SPORTSbyBROOKS has a source that has confirmed that expansion to 96-teams is pretty much a done deal.

      In the past week I’ve learned from a CBS source that the NCAA has privately informed its current March Madness television partner that 96 teams “will happen.” The change will likely take effect beginning next season. 2012 at the latest.

      Earlier this month, I wrote the following on the subject of expansion:

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      College Basketball, March Madness

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