Author: Anthony Stalter (Page 818 of 1503)

      The MLB draft will never be popular

      June 10, 2009 /

      Joe Posnanski of SI.com wrote an interesting piece about why the MLB draft doesn’t work as a popular television event.

      1. The vast majority of players drafted will never get close to the big leagues. Take the 1994 draft … 15 years ago. There were 287 players taken in the first 10 rounds, and 190 of them — two thirds — did not get a single at-bat or throw a single pitch in the big leagues.

      2. Even the players who DO make it will not make it for years. If the NFL Draft is, as the cliché goes, like getting presents on Christmas morning, well, the baseball draft is like getting a savings bond from your grandmother that will mature when you turn 18.

      I love the analogy Posnanski used in his second point.

      Yesterday I DVR’d the MLB draft and was actually looking forward to watching it. The MLB Network had hyped the event up for a couple of weeks and being a Giants fan, I was excited to see who’d they take at pick No. 6.

      But once Bud Selig (who was awful, by the way) read Zack Wheeler’s name at pick six, I realized that I could care less about the rest of the first round. Unless you’ve lived under a rock the past couple weeks, you knew that the Nationals were going to take San Diego State pitcher Stephen Strasburg with the top pick and there was a good chance the Mariners would select North Carolina’s Dustin Ackley (arguably the best position player in the draft) at No. 2. So outside of hearing whom your favorite team picked, there wasn’t much excitement to the draft.

      Posnanski is right – the MLB draft as a televised event doesn’t work. I applaud MLB for trying to make the event even a smidgen as popular as the NFL draft, but there just isn’t enough quality substance in the end. As Posnanski points out, most (and that’s not an exaggeration) of the players drafted in the first couple of rounds will never see the big leagues and even if they do, as a fan you have to wait three to four years before that happens. By that time, most casual fans have forgotten where those players came from.

      Again, I think it’s great that baseball has embraced the idea of making the draft more of an event. But the reality is that I would rather watch the entire third round of the NFL draft than just one pick in the first round of the MLB draft. And I think others feel the same way.

      MLB

      Manny: ‘I didn’t kill or rape anyone.’

      June 10, 2009 /

      Breaking his silence for the first time since he was suspended 50 games for testing positive for PEDs, Manny Ramirez told the Los Angeles Times that he vows to “make it up” to the Dodger fans by leading the team “to another level” upon his return.

      He also dropped this little ditty in the interview:

      “I didn’t kill nobody, I didn’t rape nobody, so that’s it, I’m just going to come and play the game,” Ramirez said.

      You know what? I agree with him. He didn’t kill or rape anybody and if he did take steroids, in the grand scheme of things when you really get down to the nuts and bolts of the issue, he only endangered himself.

      But the problem is that he was so arrogant reaching this point that nobody has a problem chastising him to no end. He flat out quit on the Red Sox (not just the organization – but an entire team) last year, only to be traded to the Dodgers and be made a hero.

      Continue reading »

      MLB

      Ryan, Crowder intensify Dolphins-Jets rivalry with trash talking

      June 10, 2009 /

      Who would have thought that Rex Ryan and Channing Crowder would make for great NFL news in June?

      Tuesday night, after Dolphins linebacker Channing Crowder first learned about Jets coach Rex Ryan’s unsolicited response earlier in the day regarding comments Crowder made this weekend, the talkative defensive leader returned another round of his own jabs.

      But before we get to Crowder’s latest rebuttal (it’s worth the wait), we should first get you up to date on the unprompted comments Ryan made during a news conference earlier in the day when he made it clear he didn’t appreciate Crowder calling out the Jets for getting ahead of themselves in June.

      ”I don’t know this Channing Crowder,” said Ryan, the Jets’ first-year head coach. “All I know is that he’s all tatted up, so I guess I ought to be nervous about him. The other thing is I think he’s wrong because I do think you win in June. I think you win with your preparation and all that kind of stuff. If I was younger, I’d probably handle him myself.”

      So yes, it’s June. And yes, a linebacker and a head coach from rival teams are talking trash. This might be the football equivalent of Christmas in July – and it only gets better. Reached on his cellphone Tuesday, Crowder responded to Ryan’s comments with this:

      ”Oh, Lord have mercy,” Crowder said Tuesday. “What’s wrong with him? Now he’s talking about preparation? We play them twice this year. If he wants to be prepared, shouldn’t he know the starting middle linebackers of his division rival?”

      As for the notion that Ryan would ”handle him myself” if he was ”younger,” Crowder begs to differ.
      ”He says he’d take care of me if he was younger?” Crowder said. “I’d have beat the hell out of that big old joker. Or if he really wants to get retro, my daddy or my uncle could have handled him. Don’t get big. Win with preparation? Start watching some tape and learn who your rival is. Come on now.”

      As a writer, I’m probably inclined to say that Ryan should act more like a coach and not engage with players on other teams. But I’ve got to admit – I’m digging this.

      The Jets need a shot of life after the days of Eric Mangini trying to do his best show-no-emotion Bill Belichick impersonation (which he’s moved now moved to Cleveland) and Ryan is giving it to them. I would have to imagine that players in this generation like the fact that their coach is willing to get into it with a mouthy opponent and maybe Ryan is starting to earn his player’s respect. (Albeit it in a backwards kind of way.)

      Can’t wait for Ryan v. Crowder III.

      NFL

      Time for Penguins to get creative

      June 10, 2009 /

      With their 2-1 victory over the Red Wings in Game 6 on Tuesday night, the young Penguins are now one win away from hoisting Lord Stanley’s Cup and pulling off the best NHL upset of the decade.

      One problem: They can’t score at Joe Louis Arena and that’s exactly where the decisive Game 7 will be played on Thursday night. In three games at the Joe this postseason, Pittsburgh’s managed to score just two goals and were shut out 5-0 in Game 5.

      It’s time for Dan Bylsma to get a little creative with his front line. Why not put Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin (the Pens’ top two scoring threats) together on the same line to increase scoring chances? Some Pittsburgh fans have been clamoring for this to happen since the Pens lost the Cup last year, so why not try it now?

      Some might think that it would be unwise to change things up now with only one game left to be played, but now is actually the best time to take a risk like this because Pittsburgh needs to try and overwhelm Detroit they best it can. The Wings play with so much confidence at the Joe, so Byslma needs something to rattle their cage.

      Of course, there are two main problems with the idea of putting both Crosby and Malkin together. One is that Pittsburgh has created scoring opportunities in every game this series, but just haven’t executed. Secondly, and this is a biggie, if the Pens put Crosby and Malkin together on the same line then that puts Maxime Talbot, Chris Kunitz, Ruslan Fedotenko together on the third line, which needless to say is a major disadvantage for Pittsburgh.

      It’ll be interesting to see what strategies Byslma comes up with (if any) for Game 7. This one is for all the marbles and it’d be a shame if the Pens left scoring opportunities on the ice when there’s only one game left.

      NHL

      Skins’ Snyder to go after Vick? Don’t count on it.

      June 10, 2009 /

      According to a report by the Washington Post, the Redskins made a “quick and unanimous” decision to pass on signing suspended quarterback Michael Vick if he were released by the Falcons (which is inevitable).

      Some figured that Redskins owner Daniel Snyder would consider making a move for Vick because well, Snyder usually makes decisions without completely thinking them through and signing the troubled QB would certainly play into his consistently clueless thought process. But Vick would have been a horrible fit for Washington for a couple of reasons.

      Outside of the obvious reasons not to pursue Vick (i.e. he could be suspended by the league, he’s nowhere near in NFL game shape, and the little fact that he used to breed dogs in order to fight them in his spare time), he simply isn’t a good fit for the West Coast Offense.

      When he became head coach of the Falcons in 2004, Jim Mora naively hired buddy Greg Knapp as offensive coordinator because he thought Knapp could teach Vick the WCO. The problem was, Vick’s main struggles surrounded around his inability to set his feet properly, making quick reads and getting the ball out of his hand in a timely manner – skill sets that are imperative for a quarterback to have in order to be successful in the WCO.

      Vick not being an ideal fit to run the WCO would have been reason enough for the Redskins not to pursue him – pissing off Jason Campbell would have been another. Snyder has done a horrible job instilling confidence in Campbell this past offseason and if Washington actively pursued Vick, it might have sent Campbell off the deep end. I realize Campbell doesn’t have massive upside, but he does have potential and with a little support, he might even become a reliable QB for the Skins in the near future.

      Either way, don’t look for the Skins to pursue Vick – Snyder be damned. It just doesn’t seem like an ideal fit when you look at the situation realistically.

      NFL

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