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      Mikey’s MLB power rankings

      August 29, 2009 /

      Pennant races this season are not quite as exciting as last season, but that doesn’t mean we won’t have a few good races in September. The power rankings this week have not changed much, but the Rockies and Rangers swapped places. The Rays, who were on the cusp of cracking the Top 10, traded Scott Kazmir to the Angels yesterday, making us all scratch our heads and wonder if they are conceding the race.

      1. New York Yankees (80-48)—The first team to 80 victories is officially in cruise control. The question is, can they carry it over into the postseason? Because we all know how you-know-who performs in October.

      2. Los Angeles Angels (76-51)—If newly acquired Scott Kazmir stays healthy, this scrappy Angels team could be wearing new jewelry. Then again, October has been none to kind to them recently as well.

      3. St. Louis Cardinals (75-55)—The Cardinals now have a 9 game lead on the woe-as-me Cubs. The good franchises always add the right parts when they are in a pennant race, and Matt Holliday and John Smoltz are those guys for the Redbirds.

      4. Philadelphia Phillies (74-52)—The Phils may have given the slightest ray of hope to the Marlins and Braves, but then they remembered that they were the world champs.

      5. Los Angeles Dodgers (76-53)—Their lead over the Rockies shrunk to 2 games this past week. It’s now back to 4, but this NL West race is not going to be a landslide as everyone thought. In fact, it’s now a 3-team race.

      6. Boston Red Sox (74-54)—Don’t think the Sox can’t still catch the Yankees. If not, they should be able to hang on to the wild card, and adding Billy Wagner certainly doesn’t hurt their chances.

      7. Colorado Rockies (72-57)—The wild card is not what these Rockies have in mind, and they just keep right on winning and closing the gap.

      8. Texas Rangers (71-56)—Slipping in the power rankings and slipping in their quest for a wild card berth.

      9. San Francisco Giants (70-59)—Got a big lift from Lincecum last night against the Rockies, but Giants need to sweep this weekend if they want to remain in contention.

      10. Detroit Tigers (68-59)—T-men hanging tough, but watch out for the surging Twins, is all I’m sayin’.

      Bullz-Eye Sports Channel, MLB

      2009 CFB Preview: Ohio State Buckeyes

      August 28, 2009 /

      Check out our other 2009 college football previews.

      Preseason Ranking: No. 6 in AP Top 25; No. 6 in USA Today Poll.

      Key Returning Players: Terrelle Pryor (QB); Daniel “Boom” Herron (RB); Dane Sanzenbacher (WR); Jake Ballard (TE); Michael Brewster (C); Bryant Browning (OT); Jim Cordle (G); Thaddeus Gibson (DE); Cameron Heyward (DE); Doug Worthington (DT); Kurt Coleman (S); Chimdi Chekwa (CB); Anderson Russell (S); Ross Homan (LB).

      Key Losses: Chris Wells (RB); Malcolm Jenkins (CB); Alex Boone (OT); Marcus Freeman (LB); Brian Hartline (WR); James Laurinaitis (LB); Brian Robiskie (WR); Nader Abdallah (DT); Rory Nicol (TE); Ryan Pretorius (K); Steve Rehring (G); A.J. Trapasso (P); Donald Washington (CB).

      Player to Watch: Terrelle Pryor, QB.
      After dazzling Ohio State and Big Ten fans with his dual-threat capabilities last year as a true freshman, Pryor enters his second season looking to become a more complete quarterback. Pryor completed 60.6 percent of his passes last year and amassed 1,311 passing yards with 12 touchdowns. He also rushed 139 times for 631 yards and six touchdowns. With a full season under his belt, the sophomore should have a better understanding of Jim Tressel’s dynamic offense. In fact, Tressel has waxed poetically about Pryor’s development this summer, claiming that his sophomore signal caller is the same athlete he was last year, but 10 times the quarterback. If that’s true, the Big Ten is in massive trouble.

      Continue reading »

      College Football

      Industry Insiders Fantasy League: Round 10

      August 28, 2009 /

      To start with Round 1 (and see the scoring system and roster requirements), click here.

      My team so far: 1. Chris Johnson, 2. Steve Smith, 3. Ronnie Brown, 4. Marshawn Lynch, 5. Santana Moss, 6. Tony Romo, 7. Greg Olsen, 8. Jerricho Cotchery, 9. Fred Jackson

      Having secured Marshawn Lynch’s backup, I felt pretty good about my stable of running backs. So as the draft moved into Round 10, I was looking to bolster my WR corps by finding a diamond in the rough. Looking through my list of late-round WR gems, a couple of names stood out: Domenik Hixon and Josh Morgan. (If you’re wondering about the other guys in my top 5, Chaz Schilens and Nate Washington are injured, Ted Ginn was already drafted and Davone Bess has been usurped by Brian Hartline.) I also added Percy Harvin to my list, mainly due to this Rotoworld article which issues glowing reports about Harvin’s fantasy prospects this season.

      My mind is telling me that Hixon will have the best numbers of the three, so I drafted him, right? Wrong. I ended up going with Harvin, figuring that I would end up with Hixon in several other leagues (that matter more financially), so why not go with the sexy pick instead? If Harvin blows up, I’ll look like a genius. If he flops, oh well.

      Seriously, if the Vikings use him the way that the Rotoworld piece says they will, then he should have a very solid season in PPR leagues.

      Round 10, Pick 5: Percy Harvin, WR

      Here’s how the entire round went: 109) Laurent Robinson, 110) James Davis, 111) Carson Palmer, 112) Matt Ryan, 113) Percy Harvin, 114) Julius Jones, 115) Brett Favre, 116) Josh Morgan, 117) Sidney Rice, 118) Trent Edwards, 119) Domenik Hixon, 120) Tim Hightower

      It may be a while (as this draft is ongoing), but I’ll be back after it’s complete with a quick rundown of the rest of my picks.

      Click here to see all of my round-by-round picks.

      Fantasy Football

      How five marquee players are assimilating with new teams

      August 28, 2009 /

      For SportingNews.com, Mike Fiorio examines how five big-name players are faring with their new teams.

      Jay Cutler

      The Chicago Bears made a bold move earlier this year when they uncharacteristically uncorked multiple draft picks and a player for a guy not already on the team.

      In so doing, they landed the best quarterback they’ve had in decades.

      So far, Cutler has been a mixed bag. Rumblings of problems with linebacker Brian Urlacher didn’t help to create the right warm and/or fuzzy atmosphere. Then Cutler registered an abysmal 30.8 passer rating in the team’s first preseason game at Buffalo, completing five of ten passes with an interception.

      Last week was far more encouraging, with Cutler connecting on eight of 13 attempts for 121 yards, a touchdown, and a passer rating of 117.8 against the Giants.

      But the real question of whether Cutler is properly getting himself ready to be the Bears’ franchise quarterback will best be answered when he returns to Denver on Sunday night for a game against the team for which he was supposed to be the franchise quarterback deep into the next decade.

      In addition to Cutler, Florio discusses Matt Cassel, T.J. Houshmandzadeh, Terrell Owens and Albert Haynesworth.

      Fantasy Football, NFL

      Madison Square Garden development featured on “Mad Men”

      August 28, 2009 /

      If you don’t watch “Mad Men,” you should. In the latest episode, Sterling-Cooper is asked to put together an ad campaign supporting the controversial demolition of the gorgeous Penn Station and the development of Madison Square Garden in its place. Kevin Arnovitz of TrueHoop wrote a nice piece covering the episode’s topic.

      More than forty years after Madison Square Garden was opened above the new, dingy Penn Station, we regard it as basketball’s holiest site — a place whose mystique inspires basketball greats such as Michael Jordan, Reggie Miller, Kobe Bryant, and LeBron James to their greatest heights. These NBA titans rhapsodize about the Garden. Bryant calls it the “mecca of basketball.”

      Four decades later, it’s ironic that the building that was the bête noire of architectural preservationists has become the defining symbol of basketball preservationists — a receptacle for the sort of sentimentalism that fueled the opposition to its creation.

      Nice work.

      NBA

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