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      MLB Opening Week: 10 Things to Watch

      April 5, 2010 /

      While nothing beats the opening weekend in football, I’ll always have a special place in my heart for the start of a new baseball season. With a sense of a new beginning, the opening week of baseball brings hope and excitement to fans across the country.

      Then you realize that you’re favorite team is the Pirates, Royals or Nationals and all that hope gets crushed. It’s an ugly realization, but it is what it is.

      As baseball is set to kick off a new season, here are 10 things to keep an eye on this week.

      1. Roy Halladay makes his Philles debut
      Fans will have to wait until next weekend to see Halladay make his Philadelphia debut, but they probably won’t have to wait long to see him dominate in red and white. Halladay will start against the Nationals on Opening Day and then at Houston five days later, which means he gets tune ups against two of the weaker teams in the National League. He shouldn’t have any issues making the early-season transition to the NL – outside of hitting, of course. Unless he succumbs to the pressure of pitching in Philadelphia, Halladay will likely have plenty of success throughout the entire season.

      2. Jason Heyward’s MLB debut
      The top position player prospect in baseball will enter the 2010 season as the Braves’ starting right fielder. The former 2007 first round pick hit .323 with 17 homers and 63 RBI between three stops in the minor leagues last season and might be the difference between the Braves finishing in the middle of the pack in the National League, or securing a postseason berth. Heyward doesn’t have one breakout skill, but he’s a five-tool player who takes a patient approach to the plate and exhibits good bat speed. He’s also a solid defender, with above-average speed and can play multiple outfield positions. If Heyward turns out to be the real deal, then so too will the Braves.

      3. Can Jon Rauch fill Joe Nathan’s shoes?
      After Nathan decided to have Tommy John surgery and therefore miss the entire 2010 season, Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said that the club would employ a closer-by-committee situation with their bullpen. But Gardenhire quickly went back on that decision, instead choosing to go with Rauch as his full-time closer. The question now becomes: Will Rauch be the same reliable pitcher he was last year in Minnesota or the one that struggled in Arizona in the first half? Rauch isn’t the long-term solution, but he doesn’t have to be either. He just has to be dependable this season to help bridge the gap until Nathan returns to full health in 2011.

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      MLB

      Three out of five ESPN college basketball experts pick Butler to win…

      April 5, 2010 /

      …and the other two want the Bulldogs to win.

      Who wins and why?

      [Eamonn] Brennan: My burgeoning relationship (and by “burgeoning” I mean I saw a dog in the press room and thought he was a sweetheart, and definitely way cooler than Uga) with Blue II would say Butler. Ah, but the heart says one thing and the head says another. I think Duke wins, only because of its size. Matt Howard will get into foul trouble. It’s going to happen. Once it does, Duke should be able to control the glass easily, get buckets on the interior and do what it did to West Virginia on Saturday night even if the offense isn’t quite that crazily efficient. Butler is an incredible, legendary story, and you have to have a heart of stone to root against them. (Even if I was a Duke fan, I might be having a Rocky-Drago moment right now.) But I think Duke wins, anticlimactic though it may be.

      [Pat] Forde: Butler wins 62-60 when Hayward pulls a Bobby Plump and hits the winning shot in the final seconds. Why? Because truth has been stranger than fiction this NCAA tournament.

      [Andy] Katz: Duke wins because of the uncertainty of Howard, the ability to rebound better off the offensive glass and the likelihood that Duke can score more easily than Butler and in bunches, too. Duke has the tendency to go on runs that stretch the game more than Butler does. That’s what my mind says, but my heart wants to see an iconic story receive a winning conclusion of a Butler Bulldogs team that refused to lose in 2010.

      [Dana] O’Neil: I think Butler pulls the single greatest stunner in NCAA tournament history. The Bulldogs’ quick hands will make it hard for Duke to set up in its half-court offense, and Butler’s savvy defense won’t allow the Blue Devils to get any easy shots. I know how well Duke shot the ball against West Virginia, but that’s more exception than rule. This isn’t ordinarily a great shooting team, and I suspect the Devils won’t be able to match that offensive firepower. Mix in the talent of Gordon Hayward, whom I suspect will be guarded by Kyle Singler, and I see Butler marching the five miles down the street with trophy in hand.

      [Mark] Schlabach: I’m probably guessing more with my heart than my mind, but I think Butler finds a way to win a close game. The Blue Devils won’t shoot the ball as well as they did in their rout of West Virginia in the national semifinals. The Bulldogs won’t allow them to have as many open looks on the perimeter, and guards Ronald Nored and Willie Veasley will take away two-thirds of Duke’s three-headed monster. Gordon Hayward will hit big shots down the stretch, and Butler will march the trophy from Lucas Oil Stadium to its campus in north Indianapolis.

      It seems like pundits can be broken up into two camps: 1) those that pick Duke to win, but are admittedly rooting for Butler, and 2) those that actually believe the Bulldogs are going to pull the upset.

      This is going to be a strange segue, but I’ve been reading Dan Brown’s book, The Lost Symbol, and its all about Noetic theory, which (among other things) studies the effect that the human mind can have on the physical world. What am I getting at? Well, if virtually everyone that’s watching the game tonight wants Butler to win, will it influence the outcome? If it were ever to have an effect, it seems like tonight would be the night — has there ever been a single game where such a vast majority of the viewing public will be rooting for one side to win?

      Did I just blow your mind?


      Photo from fOTOGLIF

      College Basketball, March Madness

      What’s next for Campbell and Clausen now that McNabb deal is done?

      April 5, 2010 /

      Donovan McNabb wasn’t the only quarterback affected by Easter Sunday’s trade between the Eagles and Redskins, as Jason Campbell has now lost his starting job and Notre Dame prospect Jimmy Clausen could freefall in this month’s draft.

      There’s no doubt that the Redskins will look to move Campbell this offseason, but the question is whether or not they’d be willing to take a mid-round pick for him. Obviously teams know that with McNabb now on board, Campbell is expendable. The Redskins would be fooling themselves if they believed they could recoup the second round pick they gave to Philadelphia and should be willing to take a mid-rounder (a third, fourth or even a fifth round selection) just to get something in return for an unhappy Campbell.

      What teams would be interested in Campbell? The Rams, Raiders and Bills all need quarterbacks and depending on whether or not Mike Holmgren believes Campbell could be a long-term fit in Cleveland, the Browns might be interested as well. Campbell spent the last couple seasons in the West Coast Offense, so the Browns make sense (even though they added Jake Delhomme and Seneca Wallace this offseason), but again, only if Holmgren sees him as a long-term solution and as of right now, there’s nothing to suggest that he does. And with the Rams presumably set to take Sam Bradford at No. 1, which leaves the Raiders and Bills as the most likely trade suitors when it comes to Campbell.

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      NFL

      How the West was won

      April 5, 2010 /

      As the NBA takes goes on hiatus for one night in honor of the NCAA championship game, it’s a good time to take a deep breath and look at the Western Conference playoff picture. Henry Abbott of TrueHoop wrote an excellent post on the topic.

      The conference’s top three teams, after all the tie-breakers, are the Lakers, Mavericks and Nuggets, and they’re doing their best to keep things interesting. Over their last 10 games, they have combined to create a tepid 16-14 record. (And even the Lakers, who are a cinch for first in the West with 22 losses, are still fighting for homecourt advantage in the Finals against Orlando, which has 23 losses. Every team is still trying.)

      Meanwhile the five lower-seeded Western playoff teams — the Jazz, Suns, Thunder, Spurs and Blazers — have combined to create a 38-12 record over their last 10 games. And five of those 12 losses came from within that group of five.

      The point being: If momentum matters, there’s a lot it in the West’s seeds four through eight, who are bunched up very tightly behind the teams ahead of them.

      Here’s a look ahead at the schedule in the West for the next week:

      Tuesday: OKC @ UTA
      Wednesday: DEN @ OKC, SA @ PHX
      Thursday: LAL @ DEN
      Friday: PHX @ OKC, DAL @ POR
      Saturday: SA @ DEN
      Sunday: POR @ LAL
      Monday: OKC @ POR


      Photo from fOTOGLIF

      Fantasy Basketball, NBA, NBA Finals, News

      Duke/Butler Preview

      April 5, 2010 /

      Immediately after the games on Saturday, I wrote the following about tonight’s matchup between Duke and Butler:

      Monday night’s matchup will be touted as a David versus Goliath affair, but Duke and Butler are pretty similar in the way they play. Both teams hang their hats on good man-to-man half court defense and efficient, ball-control offense. It should be a low-scoring, tight game. I expect that Duke will be favored by five or six, but Butler is fully capable of pulling the upset. I’m sure the crowd will be pulling for the Bulldogs.

      The line started at Duke -7, but has grown to -7.5 with the news that Butler center Matt Howard is questionable to play after suffering the “mildest of mild concussions” (per the Butler trainer). The Bulldogs will need Howard to pull the upset, because Duke is very big down low. Luckily, it looks like Shelvin Mack will play despite missing a good part of the second half against Michigan State with pain in his legs.

      Jeff Sagarin pegs Duke as an almost 9-point favorite, so there still is some value with taking the Blue Devils even with the sizable line. Ken Pomeroy gives Duke an 81% chance to win, which is the biggest advantage of any favorite in the tournament since the Wisconsin/Cornell game (and we all know how that turned out).

      I’m reluctant to recommend laying the points because Butler has a way of keeping games close. Both teams play at a slow pace, but I have a feeling that Duke will look to push the ball and try to avoid facing the Bulldogs’ excellent man-to-man defense in the half-court. Against West Virginia, Duke won the rebounding battle (+3) and, more importantly, destroyed the Mountaineers from long range (13-25 from 3PT). In fact, they shot almost 53% from the field for the entire game.

      To pull the upset, Butler needs to hold its own on the glass and force the Blue Devils to shoot a poor percentage from long range. This is going to be tough to do, especially if Howard is limited or doesn’t play.

      These two teams pride themselves on tough defense and good execution on offense. Duke is just a little better at it. Butler should have the crowd on its side, but it’s tough to create much atmosphere at the Final Four and Duke has plenty of experience playing in front of hostile crowds. I see a close game where Duke’s lead oscillates between 3-5 points most of the way and then the Blue Devils may be able to stretch things out if Butler is forced to foul.

      As usual, I’ll be tweeting during the game tonight, so be sure to check back at tip-off.


      Photo from fOTOGLIF

      College Basketball, March Madness

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